US Election Live: Reaction as Trump elected US president
Fewer Americans went to the polls, but Trump drew a larger share of votes from the shrinking pool of white, working-class voters.
- Turnbull calls Trump
- Who may be in Trump team
- World reaction
- Democrats extend olive branch
- Anti-Trump protests
Welcome to the day after the night before. We’ll bring you Australian and global reaction to the election of Donald Trump and coverage of how he spends his first day as US president-elect.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS
* Hillary Clinton has given her concession speech, lamenting that the nation proved to be “more divided than we thought” but told supporters: “We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead.”
* Australian politicians have been responding today, with Malcolm Turnbull calling Trump to congratulate him.
* Markets in the US and Australia have rallied.
4pm:How Trump coalition worked
The Wall Street Journal has crunched the numbers to work hut how Donald trump’s winning coalition came together and Obama coalition enthusiasm waned:
The WSJ reports:
Trump did what many leaders of his own party said couldn’t be done: he won a national election by drawing a larger share of votes from the nation’s shrinking pool of white voters.
Mitt Romney in 2012 won white voters by 20 percentage points — and lost the presidential election by 5 points. That persuaded many Republicans they no longer could count on drawing higher margins among white voters, making it imperative to reach minority voters to broaden the party’s base.
But Mr. Trump showed that a Republican could win by energising big parts of the nation’s white majority. Though the white share of the voter pool declined, as expected, Mr. Trump won those voters by a 21-percentage-point margin, exit polls showed.
That gave him a winning hand, partly because Hillary Clinton couldn’t match President Barack Obama’s vote totals in Philadelphia, Detroit and other metropolitan areas that Democrats typically rely on. The result: Mr. Trump won the formerly Democratic Upper Midwest — Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin — and he leads in Michigan, where the race remains too close to call.
Read the rest of the analysis, including where the Clinton campaign faltered, here.
2.50pm:Trump ‘commits to S Korea’
Donald Trump has reportedly pledged his commitment to defend South Korea under an existing security alliance during a phone call with South Korean President Park Geun-hye.
Trump had said during the election campaign he would be willing to withdraw US military stationed in South Korea unless Seoul paid a greater share of the cost of the deployment. There are about 28,500 US troops based in South Korea in combined defence against North Korea.
Park’s office said she spoke by phone with Trump but could not immediately confirm what was discussed. During the call, which lasted just over 10 minutes, Trump said the US would maintain a strong defence posture to protect South Korea, Yonhap news agency said, citing diplomatic sources.
- AP
2.25pm: Shootings near protest ‘unrelated’
There are reports of five people being shot near an anti-Trump protest in Seattle. Seattle Times reporters say the incident appears to be unrelated.
UPDATE: 5 people were shot in downtown Seattle. The gunman is at large. #notmypresident was at different location https://t.co/BvrVAaFXFA
— Paige Cornwell (@pgcornwell) November 10, 2016
Seattle Fire crews treating 5 patients with gunshot wounds. 2 of the 5 with life-threatening injuries. Medics transporting to HMC. pic.twitter.com/HTtHejkTpc
— Seattle Fire Dept (@SeattleFire) November 10, 2016
2.15pm:Turnbull says Trump a ‘dealmaker’
Turnbull is telling parliament question time about his phone call with Trump this morning.
The Prime Minister says “it was a very warm discussion, a very frank discussion”. He said the US president-elect “is a businessman; he’s been a dealmaker all his life” and he would approach the job with the “pragmatism” he had applied to his business career.
“The alliance with the US will always be strong and I’m sure will become stronger,” Turnbull said.
Question time was delayed for the Prime Minister and the Opposition leader to make statements on the election.
Turnbull said:
“As President Obama said overnight, ‘campaigns are hard and sometimes contentious and noisy’. He added ‘many Americans are exalted today, a lot of Americans are less so but that’s the nature of campaigns, that’s the nature of democracy’. It shows the enduring strength of the democratic system where the power to choose the government resides with the people.
“My government, and I believe every Australian government, will continue to advocate for a strong, ongoing role for the United States and the Asia-Pacific. Australia will always be America’s constructive, solid, committed partner in peace and stability in our region.
“The fate of the world, the future of the world, depends on strong American global leadership. America has been the bedrock of global stability, of peace in the world and we look forward to a strong America, a committed America and Australia will be, as it has been in the past, a strong and committed ally as America stands for peace in the world today.”
Bill Shorten said:
“I want to briefly say to the Prime Minister and to all members of this place that as fierce and as hard as we fought this year’s election, I believe we can be proud of the standards and relative civility we held ourselves to.
“I offer my commiserations to Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State, senator, First Lady and advocate of equality, she served her country with honour. In this campaign and throughout her public life, she has fought with dauntless courage and the example she set, particularly for women and girls, will live long in the memory of the world.
“The abiding friendship between our nations is strong enough for honesty. In fact, true friendship demands nothing less. It is never acceptable to mock people for their disability. It is never acceptable to ridicule prisoners of war for their service. When this Parliament sees women being disrespected we have an obligation to speak up. When this Parliament sees people being discriminated against because of the colour of their skin or their religion, we have an obligation to speak up. The US alliance does not mean trading away our shared values, it means standing up for them.
“It doesn’t mean changing who we are or what we believe. It doesn’t mean selling ourselves short or settling for less. It is our responsibility to be the ally that America needs, not just the ally it wants. We owe that to the United States and, more to the point, we owe it to ourselves, to our character and our qualities as Australians.
“Last night the new president-elect promised to bind up the nation’s wounds. Those words, of course, come from Lincoln’s second inaugural address. So too does Lincoln’s famous healing promise to govern with malice towards none, with charity for all. Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, for that spirit, that wisdom, for an America that can heal itself and lead the world.”
12.50pm:Election anger boils into protests
Thousands of people have protested across the US over Donald Trump’s surprise victory, blasting his campaign rhetoric around immigrants, Muslims and other groups.
On Wednesday evening, thousands of protesters thronged streets in midtown Manhattan while at a park further downtown hundreds who had gathered screamed “Not my president.” In Chicago, roughly 1,000 people attempted to gather outside the Trump International Hotel and Tower downtown while chanting phrases like “No Trump! No KKK! No racist USA.” Chicago police closed roads in the area, blocking the demonstrators’ path.
Organisers also planned rallies in New York, Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia and elsewhere for Wednesday. In Austin, the Texas capital, about 400 people staged a march through the city’s streets, police said.
Earlier in the day, some 1,500 California students and teachers rallied in the courtyard of Berkeley High School, a San Francisco Bay Area city known for its progressive politics, before marching toward the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.
Read more here: Election anger boils over in US streets
12.40pm:Voter turnout falls
Voter turnout was down on Tuesday, preliminary estimates show, but not uniformly.
The US Elections Project website has national turnout at 55.6 per cent - well down on the 58.2 in 2012 and 61.6 in 2008, when Barack Obama won the White House. The last time the rate was lower was 54.2 in 2000.
In urban areas that drive the Democratic tally in much of the industrial Midwest, there were signs African-American enthusiasm for Obama didn’t fully transfer to Hillary Clinton.
In some of the smaller communities that powered Republican Donald Trump to victory, meanwhile, turnout appeared to rise.
The number of votes cast statewide rose in Pennsylvania and Florida - formerly Democratic states that Mr. Trump won - as well as in Michigan, where he was maintaining a lead.
But nationwide, fewer voters went to the polls.
Mr. Trump appeared to have won the election, in fact, with fewer votes than GOP nominee Mitt Romney drew in his losing 2012 race.
Mr. Trump in preliminary totals had about 59.6 million votes, 1.6 million shy of his party’s total in the last election.
The overall picture was of a decline in Democratic support in urban areas combined with a big increase in Republican margins in many communities outside urban areas.
In Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan, Mr. Trump won rural communities and manufacturing centers.
- with Dow Jones Newswires
12.20pm:Deutsche predicts 5pc slump in stocks
Australian investors can expect to see around 5 per cent fall off the local index as a result of Trump winning the election, according to Deutsche Bank strategist Tim Baker, who notes a selloff could have equities looking technically cheap.
Despite today’s healthy rally on global markets, US policy uncertainty will prove to be a headwind for stocks.
“Australia is already off 5 per cent from its recent peak – we’d see further downside contained at 5 per cent,” Mr Baker said, adding that “such a sell-off would take the [price to earnings ratio] to 14.5x – 10 per cent below our fair value model”.
“At spot commodity prices that’d be a [price to earnings] of 13.5x. That’s 15 per cent [cheaper than our model] – about where it traded when uncertainty was high in 2012.”
And while resources stocks are jumping for joy today, a potentially stronger greenback will weigh on the big players and keep gold miners looking attractive.
“The rise in risk aversion should boost the USD. A strong USD tends to weigh on commodity prices, which could affect resource stocks. But gold prices should be well supported given uncertainty.”
- Chris Kohler
Read more markets reaction on our BusinessNow live blog
12.10pm:Turnbull outlines Trump talk
Malcolm Turnbull is outlining the telephone conversation he had with Donald Trump this morning.
“We will be working closely with the new administration … as the Foreign Minister’s described, we have reached out to both the teams of both of the contenders in the presidential election,” he said at a media conference at Parliament House a short time ago.
“I have had, earlier this morning, a very warm and constructive and practical discussion with president-elect Trump. We canvassed a number of issues.
“Most importantly, we absolutely agreed on the vital importance of our strong alliance. Mr Trump recognises the solidarity that Australia has shown the United States and the United States has shown Australia over 98 years, during which we have fought side-by-side with the United States in every major conflict.
“He has observed the success of our economy and congratulated me on that. We discussed the vital importance of the United States’ continued strong presence in our region. We agreed that that presence has been an absolutely essential foundation of the peace and stability that has enabled the remarkable growth and prosperity, the remarkable economic growth we have seen over the last 40 years.
“It was a very warm discussion. I suppose as both being businessmen who found our way into politics, somewhat later in life, we come to the problems of our own nations and, indeed, world problems with a pragmatic approach. Mr Trump is a deal maker. He is a businessman, a deal maker and he will, I have no doubt, view the world in a very practical and pragmatic way.”
Mr Turnbull also addressed the issue of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.
“I have to say and he looked forward to, as I did, to an early meeting … we did reflect on our business backgrounds and business careers, as you would expect. Thirdly, on trade, yes, we did discuss, briefly, the TPP and I explained why Australia supported its ratification to him.”
“We agreed that we could refer to the fact that we had had the discussion but I think his views on that treaty are well-known.”
11.15am:Sanders weighs in
Democrat Bernie Sanders says he’s prepared to work with Donald Trump to help the working class, but will “vigorously oppose” other policies promised by the president- elect.
The independent Vermont senator has released a statement noting Trump “tapped into the anger of a declining middle class that is sick and tired of establishment economics, establishment politics and the establishment media.” He says that if Trump “is serious about pursuing policies that improve the lives of working families in this country, I and other progressives are prepared to work with him.” But Sanders adds that if Trump “pursues racist, sexist, xenophobic and anti- environment policies, we will vigorously oppose him.” Sanders ran against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, and supported her candidacy after she won that race.
Just in: the view from Burlington. @BernieSanders on @RealDonaldTrump's election pic.twitter.com/fIE1laaPrk
— Gabriel Debenedetti (@gdebenedetti) November 9, 2016
11.05am:Cabinet: a team of egos?
Aides to Donald Trump have plunged into a 70-day scramble to assemble a cabinet and a White House staff under pressure to prove that a political newcomer can make an immediate imprint on Washington’s bureaucracy.
Mr Trump will be inaugurated on January 20 and hopes to have his cabinet nominated and approved within two weeks of moving into the Oval office, senior aides said.
He is expected to reward the small pool of loyalists who stuck by his campaign, a group dominated by outspoken and larger-than-life characters, much like himself.
President Barack Obama sought to create a “team of rivals” by inviting his former foe Hillary Clinton to his cabinet, but Mr Trump might fashion a boisterous “team of egos”.
Newt Gingrich, the pugnacious former Speaker of the House who led the charge to impeach Bill Clinton in the 1990s, has been floated as a possible secretary of state.
Rudy Giuliani is said to be a possible candidate for attorney-general. Michael Flynn, a retired three-star general who called Mr Obama a “liar” and said that the US justice department was corrupt, has been mentioned as a potential national security adviser.
The president-elect plans to name a chief of staff within the next two weeks; a critical appointment, especially for a former businessman with no experience of public office.
Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican national committee, and the man who will be credited with shepherding his party to an election success few thought possible, is one of the contenders.
Read The Times’ full profile of who could be in the running for what job here.
10.40am:Turnbull talks to Trump
Malcolm Turnbull has spoken with the president-elect this morning to congratulate him on his win, reports Dennis Shanahan.
The Prime Minister was quick to contact the Trump transition office and had a telephone conversation with Mr Trump just after 10am.
Mr Turnbull went to great lengths last night to indicate that Australia’s close relationship with the US would continue under the Trump administration.
There have been concerns about the future of defence co-operation with our ANZUS partner because Mr Trump had indicated a more inward-looking US and demanded other allies, such as Japan and South Korea, pay more for military co-oerpation.
The other area of concern is free trade agreements with the US with the finalisation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade grouping unlikely to go ahead.
Read more Australian political reaction on our PoliticsNow live blog.
10.30am:Le Pen hails Trump ‘movement’
France’s far-right National Front party leader, Marine Le Pen, has congratulated Donald Trump.
Le Pen, who hopes to emulate Trump’s success in next year’s French, addressed supporters at the National Front headquarters in Paris, where she explained that Trump’s triumph is “good news” for France as it has thrown all political certainty into doubt.
In her speech, Le Pen contextualised UK’s vote to leave the European Union and Trump’s US election victory as part of a “great movement across the world”, and as evidence of a new world order.
Félicitations au nouveau président des Etats-Unis Donald Trump et au peuple américain, libre ! MLP
— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) November 9, 2016
National Front deputy leader Florian Phillippot echoed a similar sentiment, stating, “their world is crumbling, ours is being built”.
Meanwhile, current President François Hollande said Trump’s presidency “opens a period of uncertainty” and called for European nations to unite to defend their interests.
10.20am:The Trump test
Donald Trump’s presidency will test the long held assumption that the institutions that govern America, and the world, are stronger than the men and women bound by them, writes Paul Maley.
His agenda is well known: a Mexican wall, extreme vetting for Muslim migrants and possible abrogation of the nuclear agreement with Iran, now one of the load-bearing pillars of American security policy. He has also pledged a 45 per cent tariff on imports from China, America’s largest trading partner, and has sent mixed messages on America’s commitment to Nato,
easily the world’s most important multilateral institution and the bedrock of global security since 1949. But will Trump do what he says?
10.15am:Clinton narrowly leads popular vote
According to CNN figures, Hillary Clinton is a whisker ahead of Donald Trump on the national popular tally, with 47.7 per cent (59,796,805 votes) to his 47.5 per cent (59,590,426) A nation divided, indeed.
You can follow how the states fell on yesterday’s election blog.
10am:McConnell snubs Trump idea
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he has no interest in at least one agenda item preferred by Donald Trump: term limits for members of Congress. Trump praised the idea during the campaign, but McConnell said today the issue is going nowhere in the Senate.
The Kentucky Republican told reporters: “I would say we have term limits now. They’re called elections. And it will not be on the agenda in the Senate.” McConnell also says he hopes Vice President-elect Mike Pence follows former vice-president Dick Cheney in attending the Senate GOP’s weekly luncheons. McConnell says Cheney, a former congressman, served almost as Senate liaison for president George W. Bush. He says he hopes Pence, a former Indiana congressman, will do the same for Trump.
- AP
9.40am:What will President Trump look like?
Erasing Obama and dealing with Washington are top of Trump’s agenda, writes Bruce Loudon - who has outlined the key policy areas and what the Republican is likely to do in them. Go to his must-read piece: Draining the swamp
9.20am:Obama staff stunned
Conceding Hillary Clinton’s staggering defeat, President Barack Obama earlier today urged the nation to join him in rooting for Donald Trump’s success. He said he was heartened by Trump’s election night call for unity and hoped it wouldn’t fade.
Obama, in a post-election ritual meant to signal the peaceful transition of power, vowed to do all he could to ensure Trump would be well-positioned to run the country. He said he’d congratulated Trump by phone and invited him to sit down together at the White House. “We all want what’s best for this country,” Obama said.
Standing in the Rose Garden, with Vice-President Joe Biden at his side, Obama spoke to more than a hundred of his White House staffers, who stood silently, dazed, some crying, before breaking out into a prolonged round of applause that continued long after Obama returned to the Oval Office.
Obama’s conciliatory reaction to the election marked an attempt to buck up Democrats reeling with disappointment, shock and uncertainty about the future. He said he’d told his staff to “keep their heads up” and be proud of the “remarkable work” they’d done.
Left unsaid was that Trump has vowed to aggressively undo most of what Obama has accomplished. But the President, standing in front of the Oval Office, played down the notion that Trump’s presidency would mean an about-face for the nation. He said the US has a tendency to “zig and zag” rather than move in a straight line, and he added, “That’s OK.” “That’s the way politics works sometimes,” Obama said. “We try really hard to persuade people that we’re right and then people vote. And then if we lose, we learn from our mistakes, we do some reflection, we lick our wounds, we brush ourselves off, we get back in the arena, we go at it. We try even harder the next time.”
9.10am:Anti-Trump demonstrations
Demonstrators smashed windows and set bins on fire early on Wednesday in downtown Oakland, California, joining protesters elsewhere in the country who swarmed streets in response to the election. Other protests were generally peaceful.
In Oregon, dozens of people blocked traffic in downtown Portland and forced a delay for trains on two light-rail lines. Media reports said the crowd grew to about 300 people, including some who sat in the middle of a road. The crowd of anti-Trump protesters burned American flags and chanted, “That’s not my president.” In Seattle, about 100 protesters gathered in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, blocked roads and set a bin on fire.
In Pennsylvania, hundreds of University of Pittsburgh students marched through the streets, with some in the crowd calling for unity. Campus protests also erupted at the University of Texas, the University of Connecticut, the University of California, Berkeley and other University of California campuses. On Twitter, the hashtag “NotMyPresident” had been used nearly half a million times.
The Oakland protest grew to about 250 people by late Tuesday. Police Officer Marco Marquez said protesters damaged five businesses, breaking windows and spraying graffiti. No arrests were made.
A woman was struck by a car and severely injured when protesters got onto a highway, the California Highway Patrol said. Demonstrators vandalized the driver’s SUV before officers intervened. The highway was closed for about 20 minutes.
Oakland is a hotbed of violent protest in the San Francisco Bay Area. Two years ago, demonstrators briefly shut down two freeways, vandalized police cars and looted businesses when a Missouri grand jury decided not to indict a white police officer in the fatal shooting of a black teenager in Ferguson. Nearly 80 people were arrested after a night in 2010 that saw rioters use metal bats to break store windows, set fires and loot after a white transit police officer was acquitted of murder and convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the slaying of an unarmed black man.
Elsewhere in California, more than 1000 students at Berkeley High School staged a walk-out and marched to the campus of the University of California. Students also walked out of two high schools in Oakland, a high school in Boulder, Colorado and a high school in Phoenix, Arizona.
9.05am:Graphic: rise of the rust belt
8.50am:No-fly zone over Trump Tower
The FAA has imposed temporary flight restrictions over Donald Trump’s high-rise home as a safety measure in response to his presidential victory.
A notice dated Wednesday bars aircraft from flying below 2,999 feet in midtown Manhattan, where Trump Tower is located, and in parts of Brooklyn and Queens. It says military aircraft supporting the Secret Service are exempt, along with police and emergency aircraft.
The FAA generally issues temporary restrictions when there’s a special event or hazardous condition. The notice says the New York City air space restrictions are needed because of “VIP movement.” They expire January 21.
8.40am:Warren extends olive branch
Leading Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren is proposing that she and Donald Trump “put aside our differences” and work together to rebuild the American economy for working people.
A favorite of liberals, Warren has waged a bitter wars of words with Trump. She’s called him a “pathetic coward” and worse on Twitter. He’s nicknamed her “Pocahontas” - a reference to claims she made about being part Native American. As recently as Monday, Trump called Warren a “terrible person,” “a terrible human being” and a “terrible senator.” In a statement Wednesday, Warren said the integrity of U.S. democracy is more important than an individual election. She said she hopes Trump will fulfill the role of president “with respect and concern for every single person in this country, no matter who they are.”
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has also spoken to Trump and congratulated him. A spokesman says the California Democrat told Trump that she hoped to “find common ground where possible,” including an infrastructure bill that could create jobs.
Each of the top four leaders in Congress - the top Democrat and Republicans in both House and Senate - has spoken with Trump since the election.
- AP
8.15am:Briefings opened to Trump
Donald Trump is spending the day after winning the presidency holed up in Trump Tower, where sleep-deprived aides appear jubilant as they come and go.
The White House says the President’s Daily Brief and other intelligence materials are now being made available to Trump, vice-president-elect Mike Pence and other members of Trump’s transition team.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said it’s a courtesy that former President George W. Bush extended to President Barack Obama, VP Joe Biden and a few aides as they were preparing to take office.
The President’s Daily Brief is a classified document delivered to the president each morning. Until his victory yesterday, Trump had received some classified briefings but not as extensive as what he’ll now be receiving. Earnest says it’s part of Obama’s efforts to ensure a smooth transition.
Obama congratulated Trump in a phone call and invited him to a meeting at the White House on Thursday.
In the Rose Garden, Obama said he had significant differences with Trump, as he had with George W. Bush upon taking office eight years ago. But he promised a smooth transition.
“Everybody is sad when their side loses an election,” said Obama, who risks seeing much of his legacy reversed in a Trump administration. “The day after, we have to remember we’re actually all on one team.”
The usually buzzing lobby of Trump’s residence and campaign headquarters is currently closed to the general public. The scene outside is chaotic, with protesters and a mass of press gathered in penned-off area. Curious onlookers are clogging foot traffic as they pause to take in the scene.
The east side of Manhattan’s busy Fifth Avenue between 56th and 57th is also closed to the public with dump trucks filled with dirt forming a protective barrier outside the building’s lobby.
If you missed Donald Trump’s victory speech last night, here it is:
Diplomacy is mostly kicking in after a brutal campaign in which Trump had strong words to say about many countries. Here’s how the rest of the world has officially reacted:
RUSSIA
President Vladimir Putin expressed confidence that “building a constructive dialogue between Moscow and Washington, based on principles of equality, mutual respect and each other’s positions, meets the interests of the peoples of our countries and of the entire international community.”
UNITED NATIONS
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: “In the aftermath of a hard-fought and often divisive campaign, it is worth recalling and reaffirming that the unity in diversity of the United States is one of the country’s greatest strengths. I encourage all Americans to stay true to that spirit. “People everywhere look to the United States to use its remarkable power to help lift humanity up and to work for the common good.”
BRITAIN
Prime Minister Theresa May: “Britain and the United States have an enduring and special relationship based on the values of freedom, democracy and enterprise.
“We are, and will remain, strong and close partners on trade, security and defence.
“I look forward to working with President-elect Donald Trump, building on these ties to ensure the security and prosperity of our nations in the years ahead.”
CANADA
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has congratulated Donald Trump on winning the US presidency and stressed the close friendship and ties between the two nations.
Trudeau said in a statement on Wednesday he looks forward to working very closely with Trump and his administration on trade, investment, international peace and security.
CHINA
“We hope for co-operation with the new administration to ensure healthy and stable development of the US-Chinese relations for the good of both states,” said the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lu Kang.
MEXICO
Mexico’s President Pena Nieto was heavily criticised for receiving Donald Trump in Mexico during the campaign, after the Republican candidate called Mexican immigrants rapists and vowed to build a wall between the two countries. “Mexico and the United States are friends, partners and allies and we should keep collaborating for the competitiveness and development of North America,” Pena Nieto said on his Twitter account.
GERMANY
“The result is not to be underestimated. The result is different from what most people in Germany desired. But of course we have to accept it,” Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
“In the course of the election campaign Donald Trump has found critical words about Europe and Germany. We must adjust to the fact that American foreign policy will get less predictable in the near future.”
FRANCE
President Francois Hollande warned the result would open up a period of uncertainty.
“I congratulate him as is natural between two democratic heads of state,” said Hollande. “This American election opens a period of uncertainty.”
ISRAEL
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Trump a “true friend of the State of Israel.” Netanyahu believes the two leaders “will continue to strengthen the unique alliance between our two countries and bring it to ever greater heights.”
JAPAN
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he “looks forward to co-operating closely with the next president” in the United States.
He looks forward to “further strengthening the Japan-US relations and the two countries taking a leading role to ensure peace and prosperity in the Asia- Pacific region.”
LIBERIA
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf: “We are extremely saddened by this missed opportunity on the part of the people of the United States to join smaller democracies in ending the marginalisation of women.”
TURKEY
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan: “I hope that this choice of the American people will lead to beneficial steps being taken for the world concerning basic rights and freedoms, democracy and developments in our region.”
PHILIPPINES
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte: “I would like to congratulate Mr Donald Trump. Long live. We are both making curses. Even with trivial matters we curse. I was supposed to stop because Trump is there. I don’t want to quarrel anymore, because Trump has won,” said in a speech to the Filipino community during a visit to Malaysia.
NORWAY
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg says Oslo aims to continue to work for good relations with the United States that is key to her country’s security and economy.
DENMARK
Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen says “now that the dust has settled, I hope that the incoming administration will continue the open and constructive co-operation that has been the hallmark of the US in recent years.”
INDONESIA
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo says the world’s most populous Muslim nation will work with Donald Trump’s administration.
He says “we will keep good relations, especially in trade and investment as we know the US is one of Indonesia’s major investors. I think there will be no change.”
IRAN
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani: “The results of the US election have no effect on the policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“Iran’s policy for constructive engagement with the world and the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions have made our economic relations with all countries expanding and irreversible.” SWEDEN
Sweden had prepared for different outcomes in the US presidential elections, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven says.
“This is an election outcome that many people feel concerned about but that we have prepared for.
“Sweden has a long tradition of co-operation with US governments, regardless of party political affiliations” and aims to work with the incoming administration “to safeguard Swedish and European interests and to promote global security and stability.”
- AP
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