離開
進入《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Trump triumphs
US president-elect Donald Trump, right, reaches to his running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence, during an election night event at the New York Hilton Midtown in New York City on Wednesday. Photo: AFP
BIGOTRY WINS: Following his campaign that revelled in deep ethnic divides and chauvinism, polarizing the US, Donald Trump spoke of a time to heal the divisions and find common ground
/ Reuters
Republican Donald Trump stunned the world by defeating heavily favored Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton in Tuesday’s US presidential election, ending eight years of Democratic rule and sending the US on a new, uncertain path.
A wealthy real-estate developer and former reality television host, Trump rode a wave of anger toward Washington insiders to win the White House race against Clinton, whose gold-plated establishment resume included stints as a first lady, US senator and secretary of state.
US President Barack Obama, who campaigned hard against Trump, telephoned the Republican “to congratulate him on his victory” and invited him to the White House for a meeting today, the White House said in a statement.
“Ensuring a smooth transition of power is one of the top priorities the president identified at the beginning of the year and a meeting with the president-elect is the next step,” the White House said.
Trump collected enough of the 270 state-by-state electoral votes needed to win a four-year term that starts on Jan. 20, taking battleground states where presidential elections are traditionally decided, US television networks projected.
He appeared with his family before cheering supporters in a New York City hotel ballroom, saying it was time to heal the divisions caused by the campaign and find common ground after a campaign that exposed deep differences among Americans.
“It is time for us to come together as one united people,” Trump said. “I will be president for all Americans.”
He said he had received a call from Clinton to congratulate him on the win and praised her for her service and a hard-fought campaign.
His comments were an abrupt departure from his campaign trail rhetoric in which he repeatedly slammed Clinton as “crooked” amid supporters’ chants of “lock her up.”
However, Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, yesterday did not rule out the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton’s past conduct, a threat Trump made in an election debate last month.
Despite losing the state-by-state electoral battle that determines the US presidency, Clinton narrowly led Trump in the nationwide popular vote, according to US media tallies.
It is the second time in 16 years that a Democratic candidate lost the presidency despite winning more votes than the victor.
In 2000, then-US vice president Al Gore got more votes than Republican candidate George W Bush.
Republicans also kept control of the US Congress.
At Clinton’s election event in New York City, an electric atmosphere among supporters expecting to see her become the US’ first woman president dissipated.
Clinton did not immediately make a concession speech, instead sending campaign chairman John Podesta out to tell her supporters to go home.
“We’re not going to have anything more to say tonight,” he said.
She was scheduled to speak to aides yesterday morning in New York City, but as of press time last night, she had not yet appeared.
Aides said her remarks would be aimed at aides and staff.
Prevailing in a cliffhanger race that opinion polls had clearly forecast as favoring a Clinton victory, Trump won avid support among a core base of white non-college educated workers with his promise to be the “greatest jobs president that God ever created.”
In his victory speech, he said he had a great economic plan, would embark on a project to rebuild US infrastructure and would double US economic growth.
His win raises a host of questions for the US at home and abroad. He campaigned on a pledge to take the country on a more isolationist, protectionist “America first” path. He has vowed to impose a 35 percent tariff on goods exported to the US by US companies that went abroad.
Trump, who at 70 will be the oldest first-term US president, came out on top after a bitter and divisive campaign that focused largely on the character of the candidates and whether they could be trusted to serve as the 45th president.
The presidency will be Trump’s first elected office, and it remains to be seen how he will work with Congress.
During the campaign Trump was the target of sharp disapproval, not just from Democrats, but from many in his own party.
Trump entered the race 17 months ago and survived a series of seemingly crippling blows, many of them self-inflicted, including the emergence last month of a 2005 video in which he boasted about making unwanted sexual advances on women.
He apologized, but within days, several women emerged to say he had groped them, allegations he denied. He was judged the loser of all three presidential debates with Clinton.
A Reuters/Ipsos national election day poll offered some clues to the outcome. It found Clinton badly underperformed expectations with women, winning their vote by only about 2 percentage points.
While she won Hispanic, black and young voters, Clinton did not win those groups by greater margins than Obama did in 2012.
Younger blacks did not support Clinton like they did Obama, as she won eight of 10 black voters between the ages of 35 and 54. Obama won almost 100 percent of those voters in 2012.
During the campaign, Trump said he would “make America great again” through the force of his personality, negotiating skill and business acumen. He proposed refusing entry to the US of people from war-torn Middle Eastern countries, a modified version of an earlier proposed ban on Muslims.
His volatile nature, frequent insults and unorthodox proposals led to campaign feuds with a long list of people, including Muslims, the disabled, Republican US Senator John McCain, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, the family of a slain Muslim-American soldier, a Miss Universe winner and a federal judge of Mexican heritage.
A largely anti-Trump crowd of about 400 to 500 people gathered outside the White House after his victory, many visibly shocked or in tears. Some carried signs that read “stand up to racism” and “love trumps hate.”
About a dozen Trump supporters began shouting “U-S-A” and the competing demonstrators briefly pushed each other.
The election was unprecedented in the way it turned Americans against each other, according to dozens of interviews in rural US and across some of the most politically charged battleground states.
Throughout his campaign — and especially in his acceptance speech at the Republican convention in July — Trump described a dark US that had been knocked to its knees by China, Mexico, Russia and the Islamic State group.
The American dream was dead, he said, smothered by malevolent business interests and corrupt politicians, and he alone could revive it.
He has vowed to win economic concessions from China and to build a wall on the southern US border with Mexico to keep out undocumented immigrants.
His triumph was a rebuke to Obama, a Democrat who spent weeks flying around the US to campaign against him, repeatedly casting doubt on his suitability for the White House. Obama will hand over the office to Trump after serving the maximum eight years allowed by law.
Trump promises to push Congress to repeal Obama’s troubled healthcare plan and to reverse his Clean Power Plan. He plans to create jobs by relying on US fossil fuels such as oil and gas.
Trump’s victory marked a frustrating end to the presidential aspirations of Clinton, 69, who failed for the second time to be president.
Additional reporting by staff writer
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
US president-elect Donald Trump, left, arrives with his son, Baron, and wife, Melania, at the New York Hilton Midtown in New York City on Wednesday night. Photo: AFP
