Donald Trump elected U.S. president

Republican candidate Donald J. Trump is America's newest president-elect (or president to-be).

Not all votes have been counted by this morning. But Trump has already received enough electoral votes (currently about 289) to beat his main rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton. (What does this mean? Check out yesterday's post to find out.) In other words, the gap between the two is far too large for Clinton to be able to win.

Polls did not match actual votes

The result came as a shock to many. Nearly all polls predicted that Hillary Clinton would win this particular election. (Polls are surveys—or sample tests— taken of people's opinions that are used to predict how an election might turn out.) But the election itself took a strong turn in Trump's favour once the voting results began coming in last night.

Still, it was an exceptionally close race (though not as close as the 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, which wasn't even confirmed until days after election day). Trump had to wait until around 3:00am to be able to deliver his acceptance speech to a large crowd of supporters near his home in Manhattan, New York. In his speech, he said that America owed his opponent Clinton “a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country.”

Coming together

Like all new presidents, Trump will have a long to-do list to start next year. But uniting the country could be the biggest overall challenge for him and the United States. Many Americans—on all sides—feel deep frustration with how their country has been run by politicians in the past. Trump was not a politician before this election, which appealed to many voters. In fact, the businessperson is the first president of the United States to have never held any previous political position at all. Will that be enough for him to bring the kind of changes to the country that his supporters are hoping for?

"It's time for America to bind the wounds of division," said Trump during his acceptance speech. "It's time for us to come together as one united people."

On January 20, 2017, Trump will be sworn in as his country's 45th president.