Trump Triumphs, calls on Americans to Unite It Is Time for us to Come Together

Trump's remarkable victory brings to an end one of the most dramatic, unpredictable and historic contests in American political history between the two most disliked presidential candidates in decades. As Trump prepares to move from the Empire State to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he will be forced to consider the overwhelming task that lies ahead: governing a divided nation with a political system consumed by polarization and a citizenry desperate for healing.

- Gabby Morrongiello

Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump has been elected the 45th president of the United States, marking the first time in America's history that voters have chosen to send a candidate without military or government experience to the Oval Office.

Trump's election is the culmination of Americans' dissatisfaction with the established political order and a brutal awakening for Democratic and GOP critics who relentlessly bemoaned his economic nationalism, populist positions and nostalgia-fueled campaign for the better half of an extraordinary election cycle.

It is just as much an astonishing feat for a candidate whose principal professional experience has been in the private sector and whose bare-bones campaign left many viewing his victory as more improbable than the Miracle on the Hudson.

The twice-divorced septuagenarian defeated Hillary Clinton, a former senator and secretary of state, and the first-ever woman nominated for the presidency by a major political party. Clinton, who Trump branded "Crooked Hillary" early on in their race, was seen as the odds-on favorite by pundits and prediction markets through the eve of the election.

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But as the returns came in and Trump eked out victories in Florida, Ohio and North Carolina, betting markets and respected forecasts began shifting rapidly toward the Republican nominee. By 11 p.m. ET, The New York Times' presidential forecast had made a 180-degree turn, giving Trump a 95 percent chance or greater of winning the presidency.