Against all odds and in stark disagreement with all polls, Donald Trump has been elected President of the United States by a substantial margin. Vote counting went into the early hours of the morning but it became apparent even before Tuesday rolled over into Wednesday that Hillary Clinton would not become the first female President, as she and so many had hoped. When all was said and done, and despite everything that was on the line, only 112 million Americans voted in this election, the lowest turnout since the 2000 election.
Early this morning, President-elect Donald Trump received a phone call from Hillary Clinton conceding the election. He gave a victory speech soon after, and you’ll find a video of that speech below along with a transcript of the speech in its entirety.
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Thank you. Thank you very much. Sorry to keep you waiting. Complicated business. Thank you very much. I’ve just received a call from Secretary Clinton. She congratulated us. It’s about us. On our victory. And I congratulated her and her family on a very, very hard fought campaign. She fought very hard. Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time and we owe her a major debt of gratitude to her service for our country.
Now its time for America to bind the wounds of division. We have to get together. To all Republicans and Democrats and Independents across the nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people. It’s time.
I pledge to every citizen of our lands that I will be the president for the American people. For those who have chosen not to support me in the past, for which there were a few people, I’m reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so we can work together and unify our great country.
As I’ve said from the beginning, ours was not a campaign but rather an incredible and great movement made up of millions of hardworking American men and women who worked together to make America better for their family. It is a movement combined of all races, religions, backgrounds, and beliefs who want and expect to serve the American people and serve the people it will. Working together, we will begin the urgent task of rebuilding our nation while fulfilling the American dream. I’ve spent my entire life in business looking at the untapped potential of the American people all over the world.
That is now what I want to do for our country. Tremendous potential. It’s going to be a beautiful thing. Every single American will have the ability to realize their fullest potential. The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, schools, hospitals. We will rebuild our infrastructure. Which will become second to none, and we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it.
We will also finally take care of our great veterans who have been so loyal and I’ve gotten to know so many over this 18-month journey. The time that I have taken with them I consider among my greatest honors. We will embark upon a project of American growth and renewal. We will call upon the best and the brightest to leverage our tremendous talent to benefit all. It will happen. We will have a great economic plan. We will double our growth and build the biggest economy, anywhere in the world. At the same time we will get along with all other nations willing to get along with us.
We will have great relationships. We expect to have great great relationships. No dream is too big no challenge is too great. Nothing we want for our future is beyond our reach. America will no longer settle for anything less than the best. We must reclaim our country’s destiny and dream big and bold and daring. We have to do that. We are going to dream of things for our country. Beautiful things. Successful things. Successful things once again. I wanna tell the world community that while we will deal with America’s interests first, we will get along with all other nations, willing to get along with us. We will be. We will have great relationships. We expect to have great, great relationships. No dream is too big, no challenge is too great. Nothing we want for our future is beyond our reach. We will barely with anyone. All people and all other nations. We will seek common ground not hostility. Relationships not conflict.
And now I’d like to take this moment to thank some of the people who have really helped me with this very historic victory. First, I would like to thank my parents, who are looking down on me right now. Great people. I’ve learned so much from them in every regard; truly great parents. My sisters, Mary Anne and Elizabeth, they’re here with us tonight. They’re very shy. And my brother, Robert, my great friend. My brother, Robert. And they should all be on this stage, they’re so great. And also my late brother Fred, great guy, fantastic guy. Fantastic family. I was very lucky. Great, fantastic parents. To Melania and Don. And Ivanka and Eric. And Tiffany and Barron. I love you and I thank you and especially for putting with all of those hours this was tough. This political stuff is nasty and it’s tough. So I want to thank my family very much. Thank you all. Thank you. And Lara, unbelievable job. Vanessa, thank you
Unbelievable group. You’ve all given me such incredible support and I’d like to tell you we have a large group of people. Look at all these people. And KellyAnne. And Chris. And Rudy. And Steve. And David. We have got tremendously talented people up here and I have to tell you, it’s been very special. I’d like to give a very special thanks to our former mayor Rudy Giuliani. Unbelievable. He traveled with us and he went to meetings. Rudy never changes. Rudy. Gov. Chris Christie, folks, was unbelievable. Thank you. The first man, first senator, first major, major politician. He is entirely respected in Washington because he is as smart as you’ll get. Sen. Jeff Sessions. Great man. Another great man, very tough competitor. He was not easy. Oh, Rudy got up here. Another great man who has been a friend to me, but I got to know him as a competitor because he was one of the folks negotiating against those Democrats Dr. Ben Carson, get up here. Where is Ben? Where is Ben? And by the way, Mike Huckabee is here some place and he is fantastic. Gen. Mike Flynn. Where is Mike? And Gen. Kellogg. We have over 200 generals and admirals that have endorsed our campaign. And they’re special people. It’s truly an honor. We have 22 congressional Medal of Honor recipients we have truly tremendous people.
A very special person who believed me, I never had a bad second with him, he is an unbelievable star. Let me tell you about Reince. I’ve said this. I’ve said Reince, I know it, I know it. Reince is a super star. But I said they can’t call you a superstar Reince, unless we win. Because you can’t be called a superstar — because if Secretariat came in second, Secretariat wouldn’t have that beautiful bronze bust at Belmont. But I’ll tell you, Reince is really a star and he is the hardest-working guy. And in a certain way I did this — where is Reince? Get him over here. Boy, oh boy, oh boy. It’s about time you did this, Reince. Say a few words. Say something.
Reince Preibus then took the mic and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, the next President of the United States, Donald Trump. Thank you, it’s been an honor, God bless, thank God.”
Back to Trump:
Amazing guy. Our partnership with the RNC was so important to the success with what we’ve done. So I’ve got to say I met some incredible people. The Secret Service people. They’re tough and they’re smart and they’re sharp and I don’t wanna mess around with them, I can tell you. And when I want to go to wave to a big group of people and they rip me down and put me down. But they are fantastic people, so I want to thank the Secret Service. And law enforcement in NYC. They’re here tonight. These are spectacular people. Sometimes under appreciated but we appreciate them, honestly. With what they go through.
So. It’s been what they call it a historic event, but to be really historic we have to do a great job. And I promise you I will not let you down. We will do a great job. I look very much forward to being your president. And hopefully at the end of two years or three years or four years or maybe even eight years, you will say so many of you worked so hard for us. And I can only say that while the campaign is over, our work is really just beginning. We’re going to get to work immediately for the American people. And we’re going to be doing a job that hopefully you’ll be so proud of your president. You’ll be so proud.
Again, it’s been an honor. It’s been an amazing evening. It’s been an amazing two-year period. And I love this country. Thank you, thank you very much. Thank you to Mike Pence, thank you everybody.
