Trump wins the White House

Republican Donald Trump has won the White House after a stunning show of strength in battleground states that defied nearly all of the polling heading into Tuesday.

All over the electoral map, Trump triumphed in swing states that were believed to favor Hillary Clinton. While exit polls had Republican operatives privately despairing about his chances, he proved them wrong, as he long said he would.

{mosads}He scored wins in Ohio, North Carolina, Florida and Pennsylvania, with Wisconsin putting him over the top just after 2:30 a.m.

While Trump has accrued more than 270 electoral votes, it’s possible that Clinton could still win the popular vote, though it’s too early to tell for sure.

Clinton conceded the race in a phone call with Trump, according to an aide.

Trump has so far been projected the winner of 26 states. Clinton has been projected to take 18 states, including the swing states of Virginia and Colorado, but saw much of her blue-state firewall fall to pieces.

The Republican’s victory has left the political world in a state of shock, with the outcome heralding a seismic shift in the nation’s politics.

Republicans are projected to hold their majorities in the House and Senate, which means they will have unified control of Washington for the first time since 2005. That frees them up to roll back much of President Obama’s legacy and pursue a dramatically different agenda.

Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said earlier in the evening that the campaign was feeling “really good” about where the race stood — and that turned out to be an understatement.

“The movement that Donald Trump has built has been able to grow the party in a very different way — be more pro-worker, a little less elitist,” Conway said on MSNBC. 

Even senior Trump aides admitted being shocked by the results, with their own internal polls showing the businessman behind in the race.

As the night has progressed, the mood has changed dramatically in the two campaigns, with a deep gloom falling over Clinton headquarters in Brooklyn and the mood rising in Trump Tower. Amid tears and silence, a reporter for The Hill spotted people leaving the Clinton event early.

Polls ahead of Tuesday had given the Clinton camp confidence, with most showing her leading the race by at least 4 points.

But those polls dramatically underestimated support for Trump, who appears to be outperforming Mitt Romney by big margins among white, working class voters, changing the electoral map in ways few thought possible.

While Trump called in for several radio and TV interviews Tuesday, Clinton mostly kept out of the spotlight, save for casting her vote in Chappaqua, N.Y., on Tuesday morning. She called the experience “humbling.”

“I know how much responsibility goes with this and so many people are counting on the outcome of this election, what it means for our country, and will do the very best if I am fortunate enough to win today,” she said.  

The public has not heard from either candidate since the first results were released at around 7 p.m.

It appears unlikely that Clinton will make public comments until Wednesday.

Her campaign chairman, John Podesta, made an appearance in New York just after 2 a.m., declaring that the race isn’t over.

“They are still counting votes and every vote should count,” Podesta said at the Javitz Center, the site of the Clinton campaign election party.

“Several states are too close to call, so we are not going to have more to say tonight.”