US Election 2016: Shock and celebrations

Winners and losers pictured as the drama of Republican candidate Donald Trump's election victory unfolded.

Republican Donald Trump stunned the world on Tuesday by defeating heavily favoured Hillary Clinton in the race for the White House, ending eight years of Democratic rule and sending the United States on a new path.

A wealthy property developer and former reality TV host, Trump rode a wave of anger towards Washington insiders to defeat Clinton, whose establishment resume includes stints as first lady, US senator and secretary of state.

Courtesy; Aljazeera

US election results: The maps and analysis that explain Donald Trump's shock victory to become President

Donald Trump has pledged to be a president "for all Americans" after being elected president of the United States, capturing crucial victories over Hillary Clinton in a remarkable show of strength.

The president-elect addressed supporters at his victory party in New York City after his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton called him to concede.

The Republican confounded pre-election polls by taking a series of key battleground states, including Florida, Ohio, and North Carolina, before stunningly carrying Pennsylvania, a state that had not backed a Republican for president since 1988.

The celebrity businessman clinched victory after capturing Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes, putting him over the 270 threshold.

Mr Trump will govern with a Congress fully under Republican control. The GOP fended off a Democratic challenge in the Senate and the party also extended its grip on the House.

Our final prediction had Hillary Clinton on 206 strong or leaning electoral college votes, while Trump was on 164. This left 168 up for grabs in swing states, meaning the race was well and truly open.

A candidate needs to secure 270 out of 538 electoral college votes in order to win the presidency. They claim these by winning individual states that each award a certain number of votes. States with more people have more electoral college votes.

Presidential results maps
The electoral map is important. Each state is worth a certain number of electoral college votes, so Trump and Clinton need to build a coalition of states to reach the magic number of 270.

We will fill our maps in as the results are announced.

Our chart below sizes each state by their number of electoral college votes, showing how the big states have the power to tilt the election.

 

Probable results on our maps are based on voting counts that are currently ongoing and are not final. We are showing the candidate that looks most likely to win that state.
 

The key states in the election
Swing states with a lot of electoral votes to distribute, such as Florida and Ohio, have been targetted a lot by Clinton and Trump in recent weeks. How they end up voting will have a lot of influence on the final result.

States like Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia have the power to swing the election. So far, neither Trump nor Clinton has a significant lead in these crucial states.

 

Demographics could be of importance here. Polling has revealed a country divided down demographic lines. A country where men and whites tend to back Trump, while women and ethnic minorities flock to the Democrat's candidate.

How these demographics are distributed among key states may be essential.

 

Trump has triumphed in Ohio. This reliable bellwether state is worth a very handy 18 electoral college votes but it’s claim to fame is that it is the only one to have backed the successful presidential candidate in every election since 1964.

As such its result is seen as being very significant when determining the outcome of the race nationwide, with polling in Ohio was showing Trump marginally ahead of Clinton at the start of November. Situated on the Great Lakes, it is the seventh most populous state in the country.

Minority ethnic voters hold less sway here, with 83 per cent of the population being white according to the 2010 census compared to 72 per cent across the US as a whole.

 

Trump has won Florida’s vote for the 2016 presidency, marginally ahead of Clinton. Florida has been one of the hardest to call swing states in this election with the margins between the two candidates in recent polling being too close to call.

A week before the big day, polls were showing that Trump had taken a slight lead in the battle to take the state’s 29 electoral college votes. Florida is at once the oldest and one of the most racially diverse in America, and its voting in the past five presidential races has followed the result of the country as a whole.

Both candidates have had multiple campaign stops here in recent weeks. The state played a pivotal role in the 2000 election, when out of more than 5.8 million votes Bush beat Gore by 537 votes to claim all of its electoral college votes.

 

Clinton has triumphed in Virginia. Although not quite the boost that a state the size of Florida would give, Virginia’s 13 electoral college votes will be very handy addition for Clinton. Prior to Obama’s victory in 2008, Virginia had been a red state for the past forty years.

Nowadays, one in five of its people are black or African American, part of an increasingly moderate population based in its urban areas.

This shifting of demographics meant that the state was expected to stay Democrat this time around, with polls showing Clinton eight points clear of Trump at the end of October. Situated on the Atlantic coast, Virginia was the first colonial possession established in British America.

 

North Carolina’s voters have chosen Trump as their preferred presidential candidate. This result will be a blow for Clinton as North Carolina has been one of the toughest states to call in this election. Its 15 electoral college votes means that it is a valuable prize in the race to that all important 270 mark.

North Carolina was highly coveted this year with the candidates making multiple campaign stops there in the fortnight leading up to election day.

While Obama won it in 2008 with the assistance of demographic shifts and liberal urban areas, Romney managed to claim it for the Republicans in 2012 - the only swing state Obama lost in the last presidential election. This southeastern state is the ninth most populous in America and has a lower white population, at 64 per cent, than the average state.
 

Which states did Trump swing from Obama?
There are at least four states that swung from Obama in 2012 to Trump in 2016: Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin and Iowa. All of these were essential battlegrounds that both candidates canvassed hard.

Congressional elections
The Senate and the House of Representatives, the two chambers that comprise America's legislature, also have elections. Both of these chambers were in Republican hands prior to voting.

Senators are being elected in 34 states with the Republicans having a strong chance of holding onto their majority in the chamber.

The Republicans are on course to hold onto the Senate with a slightly reduced majority.

 

The House of Representatives is held more firmly in Republican hands with their majority of 59 looking very difficult to overturn even if Clinton had had a good day.

All 435 seats in the House were up for re-election with many having already called the result in favour of the republicans.

 

Courtesy; Telegraph News

What happens now that Donald Trump has won? The first 100 days of a Trump Presidency

Donald Trump has promised that as president he will honour the pledge stitched into his white and red baseball caps: Make America Great Again.

The former television entertainer’s campaign has been a roller coaster of triumphs and pitfalls, but his love for hyperbole has never wavered. With him in the White House, Mr Trump has said, his supporters are going to "win so big" they will soon be "sick of winning".

When it comes to mapping out the details of a Trump presidency, the Republican candidate has been no less extravagant.

It is customary in American presidential elections that a candidate sets out a vision for their first term in the Oval office.

But ever keen to be “the greatest”, Mr Trump has slashed the timeline of his proposals from 100 days to one.

At an address delivered in historic Gettysburg last month, Mr Trump laid out a “contract with the American people” that would begin with a “very busy first day”.

He proceeded to detail 24-hours designed to erase traces of Barack Obama's presidency and set America on a protectionist, nativist, track.

Immigration
Mr Trump's rhetoric on immigration came to define his presidential campaign.

Though slightly more carefully worded, his proposal once in office remains some of the most divisive legislation on the issue.

He has quietly dropped his call to remove all undocumented immigrants from the US, a move that, aside from being so impractical it might be impossible, experts have warned would damage the US economy by taking too many people out of the labour market.

Instead he would immediately begin the process of deporting illegal immigrants with criminal records.

Recent studies estimate there are fewer than 168,000 such people in the United States. But Mr Trump put the number at some two million, suggesting his calculations of "criminals", people who have had minor run-ins with the law, such as getting a speeding ticket.

He will also "suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur".

Though the terminology is vague, Syria would almost certainly be on this list. Mr Trump has claimed that the government "does not know" who the refugees it lets in are from the country, despite their being scrutinised for up to two years before being allowed to enter the US.

And last but not least there is the wall. This would not happen on his first day, he admits, but eventually a Trump administration would push through legislation "build a wall" along the southern border of the United States and make Mexico bear the costs.

He has not however, explained in detail how this would happen.

Reform Washington

Donald Trump has promised to "drain the swamp" of big money Washington politics.

In one of his most popular campaign pitches, he has said he will "reduce the corrupting influence of special interests".

Speaking in Gettysburg, at the site where in 1863 Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous speech to unite Americans, Mr Trump sought to mimic the legendary leader, promising to reinstate a government “of, by and for the people”.

His day one reforms include a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on all members of congress and a five-year-ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service.

In an effort to shrink the size of government the nominee called for a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce its workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health).

Trade
A Trump presidency would break from the traditional Republican commitment to free trade, imposing a set of protectionist policies to close America's economic borders.

He will immediately announce his intention to "renegotiate" the North American Free Trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.

He would cancel participation in the Tran-Pacific Partnership, a controversial trade arrangement with 12 countries.

The pact aims to deepen economic ties between these nations, slashing tariffs and fostering trade to boost growth. But critics argue that it will also also intensify competition between countries' labour forces.

Where the US election candidates stand on | Trade

Hillary Clinton
Has been a free trade advocate throughout her career, but moved to the left on trade during her primary election campaign against Bernie Sanders. She now opposes the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Donald Trump

Has proposed aggressive tactics on trade for decades, including forcing China and other countries to pay for the privilege of selling their goods in the US and punishing US companies that move jobs overseas. He also opposes the TPP.

Foreign Policy
Donald Trump has said that as president he may not guarantee protection to fellow NATO countries who come under attack.

In an interview just before the Republican convention Mr Trump said America would help only if that country had fulfilled its "obligations" within the alliance.

It marked the first time in post-World War Two era that a candidate for president suggested putting conditions on America's defense of its key allies.

Advocating an ultra "America first" view of the world Mr Trump has also threatened to withdraw troops from Europe and Asia if those allies fail to pay more for American protection.

Mr Trump has flip-flopped on key issues including Syria. Most recently the candidate implied that he sees Bashar al-Assad, the country's dictator, as the lesser evil when compared with US backed rebel opposition groups, some of whom have Islamist leanings.

He has promised to "bomb the hell" out of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

 

Where the US election candidates stand on | Foreign policy

Hillary Clinton
Advocates an interventionist foreign policy, contending that a power vacuum is created when America does not step in globally.

She supported the Iran nuclear deal, is against ground troops to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) and has taken a confrontational approach towards Russia and China. She supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
 

Donald Trump
Describes his foreign policy as “America First”, and says as commander-in-chief he would only engage the US in fights that were in America’s self interest and where clear, definable victory was achievable.

He would force key allies to pay more for their own defence and ease tensions with China and Russia. He has wavered on whether to send ground troops to fight Isil, but estimated in March that 20-30,000 would be necessary. He claims to have opposed the Iraq invasion, although he briefly supported it before reversing course.

Energy and the environment
In a deeply disappointing development for environmentalists, Mr Trump plans to cancel billions of dollars in payments to the United Nations climate change programs.

He has said he would redirect the funds to pay for infrastructure projects in the US.

He has also promised to lift restrictions on fracking and boost American oil and natural gas production.

He would lift roadblocks to the Keystone Pipeline. Environmental activists fought hard to convince the Obama administration to stop the infrastructure project, warning against the effects of the increase in oil production.

It’s path between Alberta, Canada and Nebraska in the United States was also said to damage fragile ecosystems.

 

Wipe Barack Obama from the history books
One of Mr Trump's first actions will be to try to erase the effects of Mr Obama's presidency.

The Republican candidate has promised to cancel every "executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama".

According to Stephen Moore, an official campaign adviser, the campaign has sought to identify “maybe twenty-five executive orders” that their candidate could reverse: “Trump spends several hours signing papers—and erases the Obama Presidency,” he said.

 

Chief among them is the Affordable Care Act. Also known as “Obamacare”, the president’s signature policy has brought health insurance to some 12.7 million people who would have struggled to afford medical cover.

But it has also pushed up insurance premiums for Americans not on government assistance.

Mr Trump would replace this with another, system, the “Health Savings Accounts”. This plan would give more power to states over how to handle funds.

But beyond that critics have said that the Trump campaign has failed to explain how it differs significantly from Mr Obama’s healthcare plan, and how they would implement it.

Like with much of his presidential campaign, Mr Trump appears to be asking the American people to trust him and wait and see.

 

Courtesy; Telegraph News