America stunned: Donald J. Trump wins presidency

Hannah Williams, News Editor

In a move that went against nearly every prediction except that of Donald Trump himself, America elected former business mogul and Republican Donald J. Trump to the White House.

When polls began closing and results flooded in to CNN and other news outlets in the evening of Nov. 8, Trump immediately had the lead in Electoral College votes. However, experts at CNN agreed then that his opponent, Hillary Clinton (D)—who was expected to win the race from the start of the election season—would still likely pull ahead.

Those same experts asserted that it would be an unexpectedly close race from that point until later in the evening when Trump clearly had a strong lead. Only for a few moments did Clinton ever have more electoral votes than Trump as the evening progressed and more votes came in.

By 11 p.m., The New York Times stated that their experts attributed a 95 percent chance of winning to Trump and a 5 percent chance of winning to Clinton.

At the start the evening, The New York Times predicted that Clinton had an 80 percent chance of winning.

When the election was finally called in the early hours of Nov. 9, Trump won 279 electoral votes and Clinton won 218. The rules of the Electoral College dictate that a candidate must attain a minimum of 270 votes to win the presidency, and if no candidate wins that crucial number, then the House of Representatives chooses the new president from the three candidates who win the most votes.

Experts at CNN watched the election closely as more results were released, and Trump had an unprecedented lead in states that normally would have been a close tie between Republican and Democrat candidates.

Michigan was expected to be a blue state this election, for it has voted for Democrat presidential candidates since 1996, according to the website 270towin.com. However, Michigan presented itself as an incredibly close election until it was finally decided that Trump won Michigan with 48 percent of the vote versus Clinton’s 47.

The state that elected Trump with the highest margin was Wyoming with 70 percent of the vote compared to Clinton’s 23, according the Associated Press.

Clinton’s highest margin was in California, where she won 62 percent of the vote compared to Trump’s 33 percent.

After the election was finally called, Trump gave an acceptance speech to an elated crowd.

“I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be President for all of Americans, and this is so important to me,” he said to his gathering of passionate supporters. “For those who have chosen not to support me in the past, of which there were a few people, I’m reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so that we can work together and unify our great country.”

Prior to the flooding in of results, advisor Omarosa Manigault revealed that Trump had written a concession speech in addition to his acceptance speech, according to People magazine, Fortune magazine and others, which shocked many who believed Trump was too confident in the election to write a concession speech.

After Trump was officially elected, Clinton declined to give a concession speech and did not speak publically, even on Twitter, which was a preferred medium of expression throughout the election.

However, during Trump’s acceptance speech, he mentioned that Clinton had phoned him and congratulated him on his win.

“We are not going to say anything more tonight,” campaign chairman, John Podesta, said to those gathered in hopes of hearing her acceptance speech, according to Huffington Post. Fox News reported that Podesta told Clinton’s supporters to “go home, get some sleep.”

In the morning of Nov. 9, Trump returned to his Twitter to say, “Such a beautiful and important evening! The forgotten man and woman will never be forgotten again. We will all come together as never before.”