Donald Trump stuns the world, elected USA's 45th president

 

Corrections and clarifications: An earlier version of this story misstated the day in which Trump made his acceptance speech. 

Donald Trump, sweeping to victory as the 45th president of the United States in a bitterly fought campaign that defied the polls, pledged Wednesday to  "be a president for all Americans."

The 70-year-old real estate mogul's stunning upset came as, one by one,  he stormed through battleground states — Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and then Wisconsin — to tear down Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton's seemingly formidable "blue wall."

Shortly after 2 a.m. ET, Clinton phoned Trump to concede. She planned to deliver public remarks in New York at mid-morning.

While decisive, Trump's victory was also close.  At mid-morning, Trump — needing 270 electoral votes to claim victory —had 276 to to Clinton's 218 with 44 votes still undecided.

The popular vote count proved even closer, with Clinton leading at mid-morning by a razor-thin margin of 47.7% to Trump's 47.5 out of more than 118 million votes cast.

The often bombastic Trump struck a conciliatory tone as he addressed an enthusiastic crowd of supporters in New York to claim victory.

"I pledge to be president for all Americans," the billionaire real-estate mogul and reality TV star told an enthusiastic crowd of supporters in New York after his victory was confirmed. "We are going to rebuild our inner cities... We will rebuild our infrastructure, which will become second to none." He also pledged to create jobs and take care of veterans.