The people have spoken. Donald J. Trump will become the 45th president of the United States after defeating Hillary Clinton in an historic election upset winning 279 electoral college votes to her 228. The stunning victory took place in the wee hours of the morning when an unexpected win in Pennsylvania put him over the top. Donald Trump’s win has been described as an unprecedented moment in political history by pundits across the globe who are scratching their heads trying to figure out how this come from behind victory came to pass.
Donald Trump has waged an incredible campaign from his initial announcement that he was running for president to his thank you speech last night. Trump, the ultimate outsider candidate, is tasting an even sweeter victory this morning given the fact that his campaign was dismissed and discredited from the onset. Throughout the primary and the general election, everyone from the Democrats and the Clinton machine, the mainstream media and the stalwarts of the Republican party pulled out all the stops to short circuit Trump’s campaign by depicting the real estate magnate and former reality television star as not a serious candidate, defaming his character by calling him a racist and insulting his supporters.
Donald Trump who started off as one of seventeen Republican candidates clinched the party’s nomination despite the Never Trump movement which was launched by prominent members of the Republican party and the conservative media. At the same time, he was also facing a daily deluge of attacks from the mainstream media who were completely in the tank for Democratic nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton despite her compromising national security by using an unsecure email server and her using her position as secretary of state to award favors to Clinton Foundation donors including those from foreign countries so that she and her husband former President Bill Clinton could pocket millions of dollars in donations and speaker fees.
However, despite all odds, Trump’s simple message that he was going to “Make America Great Again” by bringing back jobs, strengthening national security, and creating new educational opportunities for all Americans resonated with a growing group of people who were sick and tired of the status quo and political dynasties such as the Clintons and the Bushes. He also promised to “drain the swamp” in Washington and get rid of the corruption and the unnecessary waste and excessive spending. These simple messages backed up by detailed policy plans and outreach to minority communities previously not courted by the Republican party energized a segment of the American people who showed up at his rallies in unprecedented numbers. The rallies with 20,000 people in attendance were like rock concerts. Except, unlike Clinton, who was frequently surrounded by celebrity performers, Trump was the only act on the stage. People showed up to hear about his plans to create jobs, secure our borders, repeal and replace Obamacare, appoint conservative supreme court justices and restore optimism in America.
Interestingly enough, election night did not start off all that positively for Trump. Most of the analysts approached the election coverage as if Hillary Clinton had already won. But when Trump started winning battleground state after battleground state including Florida, North Carolina and Ohio, etc., everyone suddenly realized that not only was a Trump presidency possible, it was probable. The magic moment came when Pennsylvania, which is typically a blue state, awarded Trump its 20 electoral college votes, securing him the presidency. This was an incredible moment for Trump, a graduate of Philadelphia’s University of Pennsylvania.
As a Philadelphia voter who also co-hosts a radio show in the Philadelphia area where I have had the pleasure of interviewing members of Donald Trump’s immediate family, I was over the moon when Pennsylvania gave Trump the votes to win the election.
It is morning in America once again as the world learns that on January 20, 2017 Donald Trump will become the 45th President of the United States.
Let’s get ready to “Make America Great Again”.
photo credit: Gage Skidmore Donald Trump via photopin (license)
