Billionaire populist Donald Trump,
tapping into an electorate fed up with Washington insiders, was on the
verge of a shock victory Wednesday over Hillary Clinton in a historic US
presidential election that sent world markets into meltdown.
State-by-state, one-by-one, the
70-year-old maverick Republican tycoon racked up victories in defiance
of the forecasts of pundits and pollsters, before arriving within
striking distance of the White House.
Key races in Michigan and Pennsylvania
remained to be called at 0630 GMT, but the 69-year-old Democrat’s
supporters were in a state of shock and the markets did not wait for a
concession speech to react.
US futures markets fell five percent in
after-hours trading, mirrored by falls in London and Tokyo as the news
broke that the world’s greatest economy could soon be in the hands of an
untested protectionist.
The dollar tumbled against the yen and
the Mexican peso slumped to a historic low against even the weaker
greenback, on concerns that Trump might make good on his vow to build a
wall on the US border.
In New York, it was a tale of two
poll-watching parties — as Trump’s supporters whooped it up in
anticipation of a victory for his populist campaign, Clinton’s camp
succumbed to silent, stunned grief.
“It’s unbelievable. I didn’t know Trump
was really going to pull it off,” said Glenn Ruti, a New Yorker who
works in telecommunications.
“I think he’s going to go all the way. The country wants change.”
Attendees at Trump’s victory party at a Midtown hotel began chanting “Call it, call it!”
In America as a whole, it was a tale of
two countries — as Trump’s largely-white fan base celebrated a
repudiation of free trade, open borders and diverse communities,
liberals and minorities cringed.
“It’s just unbelievable,” said
51-year-old Anabel Evora, who works for a non-profit and flew into New
York as a supporter of Clinton’s historic bid to be America’s first
woman president.
“I am praying, and I am not religious,” she told AFP. “I am sad. I’m about to cry.”
At the Mexican-American bar Campeon in Manhattan’s Union Square, the mood was one of disgust and apprehension.
“If Trump wins, I am going to throw up,” said 27-year-old Amy Goldstein.
Trump’s win, if confirmed, would halt
Clinton’s quest to reach the White House for at least another four years
— and instead confer the title of president on a man who has been
accused by a dozen women of sexual assault and misconduct.
“He’s so un-American. We’re outraged.
It’s shocking. Racism, stereotyping by religion and sex,” said Kate
Kalmyka, a 36-year-old lawyer.
– ‘Drain the swamp’ –
At the bar in the soaring Trump Tower,
the Republican’s home base and headquarters, a well-heeled crowd cheered
and chanted “Drain the swamp” — Trump’s anti-corruption slogan.
“Without a strong United States of America, the rest of the world is in trouble,” declared Rina Corey.
“We were saved once by Ronald Reagan and
I think Donald Trump is in the same path. He’s a citizen and not a
politician. We need him desperately.”
In the Florida city of Miami, Cuban
Americans — traditionally strongly pro-Republican — honked their horns
and cheered as they gathered at the iconic Cafe Versailles in Little
Havana.
“We didn’t like the fact that the country was leaning socialist, we lost many jobs,” said 45-year-old Miguel Alejandro.
“This isn’t the country I found in 1993 when I arrived by raft, when they received us with great excitement.”
As of 0630 GMT Wednesday, Trump had won
at least 25 states and 245 electoral college votes, just short of the
270 he needed, and had narrow leads in partial counts in Michigan and
Pennsylvania.
Both these states were won by incumbent
president Barack Obama when he was elected in 2008 and re-elected 2012
as America’s first black president, and pollsters had expected Clinton
to keep them.
But an apparent collapse in Democratic
support among white voters — not fully compensated for by increased
Latino turnout — appeared to have doomed Clinton in blue-collar areas of
America’s Rust Belt.
– ‘Whatever happens, thank you’ –
On the legislative side, the Republicans
were on course to retain their majority in the US House of
Representatives, according to network projections.
Clinton and her husband former president
Bill Clinton were holed up in their hotel, but she tweeted: “This team
has so much to be proud of. Whatever happens tonight, thank you for
everything.”
Trump cast his ballot alongside his wife Melania in a Manhattan school gymnasium.
“Right now it’s looking very good,” he
told reporters — paying no heed to protesters who welcomed him with
chants of “New York hates you!”
The 2016 race was the most bruising in modern memory.
Obama’s election in 2008 had raised hopes of uniting Americans.
But the current contest has only
highlighted the country’s divisions — and the fact that voters are not
necessarily happy with their options.
Exit polls by ABC News and NBC News
found that both Clinton and Trump are seen as untrustworthy by
majorities of voters, while most find Trump’s temperament
unpresidential.READ MORE>>
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