Donald
John Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States on
Tuesday in a stunning culmination of an explosive, populist and
polarizing campaign that took relentless aim at the institutions and
long-held ideals of American democracy.
The surprise outcome, defying late polls that showed Hillary Clinton
with a modest but persistent edge, threatened convulsions throughout
the country and the world, where skeptics had watched with alarm as Mr.
Trump’s unvarnished overtures to disillusioned voters took hold.
The
triumph for Mr. Trump, 70, a real estate developer-turned-reality
television star with no government experience, was a powerful rejection
of the establishment forces that had assembled against him, from the
world of business to government, and the consensus they had forged on
everything from trade to immigration.
The
results amounted to a repudiation, not only of Mrs. Clinton, but of
President Obama, whose legacy is suddenly imperiled. And it was a
decisive demonstration of power by a largely overlooked coalition of
mostly blue-collar white and working-class voters who felt that the
promise of the United States had slipped their grasp amid decades of
globalization and multiculturalism.
