Donald Trump wins U.S. presidential election

Against all expectations and permutations, businessman Donald Trump has won U.S. presidential election and would become the 45th president of the United States of America.

Mr. Trump won 288 electoral votes, 73 more than her Democratic Party’s challenger, Hillary Clinton, who garnered 215 electoral votes.

The Republican candidate also won 4,591,173 popular votes to Mrs. Clinton’s 4,462,338 votes.

Mrs. Clinton has telephoned Mr. Trump, conceding defeat and congratulating him for winning the election.

She also thanked her supporters for believing and standing by her.

Mr. Trump, a real estate developer who has never held any appointive or elective political office, announced his decision to seek the presidential ticket of the Republican Party in June 2015.

He was dismissed by established politicians of his party and the Democratic Party as a non-starter partly because of the unorthodox and insulting comments he made about Mexicans, Muslims and other minorities.

But Mr. Trump defeated 16 other candidates to win the Republican nomination. His campaign was marred by scandals and conflicts, many emanating from his conduct and utterances.

His campaign organization was tattered and uncoordinated. He changed campaign managers three times and, unlike typical presidential candidates, did not open local campaign offices in most of the states in the country.

His opponent, Democratic Party’s Hillary Clinton, ran a near perfect campaign and was widely predicted to win by all polls.

She not only failed to win the Republican States where the polls predicted she had an edge, she also lost traditional Democrat voting states like Michigan and Wisconsin.

Mr. Trump won all the so-called battleground states including – Ohio and North Carolina which Mrs. Clinton was favoured to win.

Mr. Trump’s victory represents a huge shift in American politics because of his stand on immigration, foreign policy and minority rights.

Mr. Ryan has now congratulated the controversial businessman.

Credit: PremiumTimesng