- .Donald Trump has won the presidency after sensational victory that sent shockwaves across the globe
- .Trump accepted win with uncharacteristic humility hours after Election Day polls had written him off
- .Hillary Clinton made a private call to Trump to concede - but she didn't face her supporters at campaign HQ
- .Her sobbing fans streamed away as she was locked in a hotel suite just around corner from Trump Tower
- .She had just 218 of 270 electoral votes needed to win when Trump took Pennsylvania to secure crucial 274
- .President-elect thanked bitter rival Clinton and told Americans: 'I promise you that I will not let you down'
- .Trump joined on stage by his family including future First Lady Melania and running mate Mike Pence
- .Billionaire tycoon swamped with well-wishes from world leaders including Vladimir Putin and Theresa May
Donald Trump marked his world-shaking victory over Hillary Clinton today with a dramatic peace-making gesture for the rival he had called 'crooked' before promising that America would 'come together as never before'.
After he sensationally won the White House race, Clinton phoned him at 2:30 a.m. to concede she had lost and in the first words of his victory speech he said: 'We owe her a debt of gratitude and I mean that very sincerely'.
She made the private call shortly after sending her campaign chairman to give her supporters exactly the opposite message, that it was not over – a humiliating and bizarre end to a political career which had put her on the verge of being the first female president.
Instead a jubilant Trump Election Night headquarters party erupted in cheers as the news broke.
Trump accepted the mantle of leadership with uncharacteristic humility nearly three hours after Election Day was over.
'Now it's time for America to bind the wounds of division,' he began his victory speech just before 3am. 'I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans – and this is so important to me.
'For those who have chosen not to support me in the past - of 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.'
'I promise you that I will not let you down,' he said.
He thanked his parents, saying they were 'wonderful in every regard'. He thanked his sisters, his brothers, his wife and children 'for putting up with all of those hours. ... This political stuff was nasty and it was tough'. He even thanked the U.S. Secret Service.
And in a twist nearly as bizarre as the sum of Campaign 2016, he thanked Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who had called him minutes earlier to concede the presidential race after declining to do it from the stage of what was to be her own victory party.
Instead of bluster about her classified emails, Trump brought a gracious acknowledgement of her decades of government service.
Winner: President-elect Trump took to the stage shortly before 3am in New York and surrounded by his family thanked Hillary Clinton for her service to the country - a marked change in tone after the most divisive US election in living memory
Victory parafe: Trump walked on to stage with his wife Melania at his side, their son Barron, and immediately behind them daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner
Thanks: Trump paid tribute to his family, naming his wife and each of their children and thanking them for their support during a 'tough' campaign
Unifying message: Trump told critics: 'For those who have chosen not to support me in the past – of which there were a few people – I am reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so that we can unify our great country'
First tweet: Donald Trump called the night of his sensational victory 'beautiful' and told Americans: 'We will all come together as never before'
Change: This is the banner on Trump's Twitter page, which now has 'President-elect of the United States' as his bio
'She congratulated us – it's about us – on our victory,' he said. 'And I congratulated her and her family on a very, very hard-fought campaign over a very long period of time. We owe her a debt of gratitude and I mean that very sincerely.'
'I mean, 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 for her service to our country.'
No one yelled 'Lock her up!'– an aggressive rallying cry from Trump's hundreds of rallies and the Republican National Convention in July.
CLINTON'S BIZARRE ENDING – SHE HAS STILL NOT APPEARED IN PUBLIC
Clinton has yet to concede the race publicly. Her campaign chairman John Podesta mad the trek from a Manhattan hotel to the convention center where confetti cannons were at the ready.
'Several states are too close to call,' he said at the time, 'so we're not going to have anything more to say tonight.'
'Everybody should head home,' Podesta told a ballroom brimming with thousands of hopeful Democrats. 'You should get some sleep. We'll have more to say tomorrow.'
Clinton, he said, 'has done an amazing job, and she is not done yet.'
But she was done, and Trump's crowd knew it the moment their hero spoke.
Bringing all his family members and key staff on stage with him, Trump thanked his senior aides one by one.
Campaign director Kellyanne Conway waved and smiled. She curtsied and held both thumbs up, and then stuck around to talk to TV camera crews until nearly 4 o'clock in the morning.
Dr. Ben Carson, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus and even the 'Bridgegate' scandal-plagued New Jersey Gov Chris Christie got a mention from America's most improbable president.
Priebus, he said, is 'a superstar.' The two men embraced, and then the RNC chief pronounced Trump 'the next President of the United States.'
At 3:08 a.m., with Clintonworld in ruins, Trump descended to the stage into a hotel ballroom and mingled with invited guests and supporters.
Red caps flew in the air. The Rolling Stones played 'You Can't Always Get What You Want,' perhaps a subtle dig at the Democrats or the press.
Donald Trump arrives at his election headquarters after winning the presidential election early Tuesday morning
Trump claimed the White House position after taking Pennsylvania to secure 274 electoral college votes
Bizarre: US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman John Podesta, however, said Clinton will not yet concede - 20 minutes later she already had
Going home: Supporters of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton walk through convention center at the end of election night at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York - she did not appear to speak to them
Team Trump: Donald Trump, his family, and running mate Mike Pence all watched the election results coming in, shown here in a picture Ivanka Trump posted on her Twitter feed
Close: All of his five children, his wife Melania, as well as his sons and daughters-in-law, joined Trump for a watch party at Trump Tower
PENCE THANKS GOD FOR VICTORY
And Vice-President-Elect Mike Pence, the governor of Indiana for another 73 days, beamed.
'I come to this moment deeply humbled, grateful to God for his amazing grace,' Pence said as he introduced the man who had vaulted him into the national spotlight.
'The American people have spoken and the American people have elected their new champion,' Pence declared.
'America has elected a new president, and it's almost hard for me to express the honor that I and my family feel, that we will have the privilege to serve.'
When Trump emerged on stage along with nearly 50 aides and family members, he apologized for putting the crowd on pins and needles while the evening's drama played out.
'Sorry to keep you waiting. Complicated business,' he said.
The love-fest continued with his most bitter Republican primary rival, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, offering his unqualified congratulations.
'Americans have resoundingly rejected the Obama-Clinton agenda of bigger government, intrusive regulation, executive overreach, and lawlessness that is killing innovation and jobs, squandering opportunity for working men and women, marginalizing our freedoms, and compromising our security,' Cruz said in a statement.
'This election astonished the pundits. This was a change election. Americans voted for Republicans because of a promise to go to Washington to reverse our current course, and end the Washington cartel – a promise to drain the swamp. Now is the time to follow through on those words with action. We cannot wait even one day to begin implementing a conservative agenda that fulfills those commitments.'
The bizarre ending to Clinton's political career came after Trump confounded pollsters at every turn, capturing one 'swing' state after another in a line of toppled dominoes that stretched across three time zones and now ends at the White House.
The last to fall was the Keystone State – after Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Wisconsin all went to the Republican. That gave him 274 votes in the electoral college; the winner is the first to reach 270.
He was also winning the popular vote by more than a 1 per cent margin.
Clinton is contemplating a ruinous end to her career, the potential of a renewed investigation into her and Bill's charity and personal riches by a special prosecutor, and the Democrats bring locked out of not just the White House but both houses of Congress.
There will also be a Republican lock on the Supreme Court which could last a generation.
Celebration: Young Donald Trump supporters wearing 'Make America Great Again' hats and lanyards cheer during the election night event at the New York Hilton Midtown on Tuesday
Victory selfie: Two Trump supporters' posed for gleeful pictures - at the Clinton election HQ their opposite numbers wept
Matching: Young Trump supporters – donning suits and red ties similar to the presidential nominee's – celebrate during Trump's election night rally
Drama: People cheer as voting results for Florida put Trump on the path to the presidency as Clinton's campaign floundered
Glee: Supporters of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump hold a rally in front of the White House in Washington DC on Tuesday evening - it will be his home from January
Heartbroken: Hillary Clinton supporters cry as they watch the election results during Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's election night rally in the Jacob Javits Center's glass enclosed lobby
Disbelief: Ellie Chalphin of Philadelphia, left, breaks down while watching televised election returns during a watch party on the campus of Wellesley College. In New York (right), rally attendees acted in the same way
Falling flat: A group of Hillary Clinton supporters comfort one another as they break down in tears over the presidential results
BREXIT-PLUS-PLUS-PLUS IS HERE
The victory Trump predicted as America's version of Great Britain's historic 'Brexit' vote – he said it would be 'Brexit-plus-plus' and 'Brexit times 50' – will be remembered as one of the most astonishing campaigns in American history.
Pennsylvania, the state where he attended the Wharton School of Finance and two of his adult children went to boarding schools, put Trump over the top when the Associated Press declared he had won it early on Wednesday morning.
The last Republican to win the Keystone State was President George H.W. Bush, who snatched it from Democrat Michael Dukakis in 1988.
New York Republican Rep Peter King told DailyMail.com that the nation's next commander-in-chief had seeded the ground for his victory by identifying with disaffected voters who were upset about job losses and the implosion of the Obamacare medical insurance law.
'Donald Trump won because he tapped into the discontent and anger of the American people,' King said. 'It's a wonderful, wonderful night.'
The marathon evening unfolded disastrously for Clinton. With the Democratic nominee holed up in a hotel suite with her husband and family, her aides stopped speaking to the press as the results came in.
The first big state to fall was Florida. It seemed nail-bitingly close for a time – and then Trump won its 29 electoral college votes.
Ohio fell to Trump without putting up a fight. Even North Carolina, a nominally blue state, was no contest for the reality television host and father of skyscrapers.
A Clinton supporter covers her mouth as she breaks down with emotion over election results on Tuesday
A Clinton supporter cries after Donald Trump wins the state of Florida at the Democrats Abroad election night party at Marylebone Sports Bar and Grill in London early Wednesday morning
People sit outside the Jacob Javits Center waiting for election results following a rally for Clinton
Two women hug in hopes of comforting one another as Donald Trump wins electoral votes during the presidential election
A woman at Hillary Clinton's New York rally cries as a man comforts her
Guests watch the results on the television monitor during Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's election night rally in the Jacob Javits Center glass enclosed lobby
A Hillary Clinton supporter openly cries at Clinton's election night rally in Manhattan as election results roll in on Tuesday
People in the crowd at Hillary Clinton's 2016 US presidential Election Night event watch in tears as results come in on a big screen at the Javits Convention Center
Clinton supporters watch in shock as Trump gains a lead in several states in the presidential election on Tuesday night
Supporters of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton react during election night at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
Supporters of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump react as they watch sate by state results unfold on a TV screen during election night at the New York Hilton Midtown
THEY SHOUTED 'CALL IT' - THEN EXPLODED IN CHEERS
As vote-counters repainted the Buckeye State from blue to red – President Barack Obama won it twice – the New York Times' live presidential forecast gave the billionaire builder an 87 per cent chance of winning the White House.
That grew to '>95%,' its highest possible number. Then it was effectively over, but there were hours to wait for confirmation.
America's Electoral College system provides one vote for each member of Congress, including both the Senate and the House of Representatives, plus three to represent the District of Columbia – 538 in all.
A candidate needs to claim 270 votes, the smallest possible majority, in order to win the White House. Pennsylvania's 20 votes put Trump over the top with 274.
Long before the end came, aides to Clinton told Fox News that she was 'expecting a long night.'
When North Carolina's result was set in stone on Tuesday night, the Manhattan ballroom where Trump supporters gathered erupted in screams of 'USA! USA!'
As a Florida victory looked imminent, young Trump fans chanted at giant TVs: 'Call it! Call it! Call it!'
They exploded in a mass of cheers when the Sunshine State contest was declared over. A few threw their red 'Make America Great Again' hats in the air.
When Iowa and Wisconsin came through, a spontaneous rendition of 'God Bless America,' earnest if off-key, drowned out Megyn Kelly's voice blasting from a TV tuned to the Fox News Channel.
When Michigan made him the President-Elect of the United States, sternum-rattling bedlam ensued.
Projections making the rounds online and republished by the Drudge Report news website suggested that 140 million voters are participating, a new record, far exceeding the 131.4 million total in 2008.
United: Women at Trump's election rally in New York hug as they celebrate the Republican nominee inching ahead in several states
Delight: A woman at Trump's election rally in New York cheers as election results are shown to the Republican nominee's supporters
Triumphant: Young Trump supporters celebrate at the Republican nominee pulls ahead in the presidential race
Excitement: Trump supporters shout with joy as Trump takes the lead in the presidential election on Tuesday night
Support: Robert Herrera, 31, displays his Trump banner on 6th Avenue in New York, not far from where Trump is holding his election night rally
Supporters for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump react as early results come in at a Republican election night party Tuesday
Supporters of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump gather during the election night event at the New York Hilton Midtown
Wellesley College students and supporters of Hillary Clinton Kumari Devarajan, of Washington, left, and Diana Castillo, of Elgin, Illinois, right, wipe away tears as they watch televised election returns during a watch party on the campus of Wellesley College
A woman looks on while awaiting election results at Clinton's rally on Tuesday night
THE MAN WHO BUILT A 'MOVEMENT'
First-time voters, in particular, fueled the massive increase. Fox News exit polls showed that group swinging toward Clinton by a 55-37 margin, according to Fox News Channel exit polls.
Trump's campaign built its momentum in part on the promise of bringing a 'silent majority' out of the woodwork. He may not have needed the help.
Trump, a billionaire first-time candidate whose political debut was initially seen as an ego-stroking circus act, bested 16 other Republicans for the right to face Clinton, who has lived and breathed campaigns and elections for more than 40 years and had only one serious intra-party rival.
The real estate tycoon built a devoted following of tens of millions, including large numbers of Americans who had never voted before.
Along the way he angered some in the Republican Party establishment who saw him as a reckless insult-generator destined to alienate large swaths of the American electorate.
His campaign was less than a half-hour old when he generated headlines by saying some illegal immigrants crossing the US-Mexico border were 'murderers,' 'rapists' and other criminal aliens.
While accurate, the statement was contorted to create the impression that the man who employs thousands of Hispanics at his country clubs and skyscrapers actually hates them.
The label stuck.
Trump gave his enemies ammunition by repeating more than 500 times a pledge that as president he would wall off America from Mexico, stemming the flow of narcotics and human chattel while defending the border from an unchecked flood of immigrants with no legal right to be in the United States.
Hillary Clinton supporters react as election results roll in on Tuesday night
Hillary Clinton supporters hold their hands to their mouths as they react to election results at the Democratic nominee's election night rally
Pedestrians watch the election results on large screens in Times Square, New York, on Tuesday
Hundreds of Hillary Clinton supporters gather to observe the US presidential election results at the corner of President and Clinton streets in the Brooklyn Borough of New York
Clinton supporters react to election results at a rally in the Brooklyn borough of New York on Tuesday night
A supporter of US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is seen reacting to the giant FOX news jumbotron TV in Times Square
Supporters of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton look on during election night at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
Supporters of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton watch and wait at her election night rally in New York on Tuesday
Supporters watch election returns during Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's election night rally in the Jacob Javits Center glass enclosed lobby
Supporters of US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump watch results at his election night rally in Manhattan on Tuesday
The Empire State Building in New york is lit in Red, White and Blue colors as seen from Weehawken, New Jersey, before the closing of polls in the US presidential election
A cake in the likeness of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is on display at his election night event at the New York Hilton Midtown in New York
The brash hip-shooter made his demographic hole deeper by suggesting that a federal judge hearing a lawsuit against a defunct real estate training seminar series that bore his name couldn't decide the case fairly – because his parents were born in Mexico.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, the Republican Party's highest ranking elected official, called Trump's declaration 'the textbook definition of a racist statement.'
More damaging still was a series of episodes that angered feminists and other powerful women in a year when Trump was running against America's would-be first female president.
He feuded with Fox News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly, saying after a testy debate exchange that she had 'blood coming out of her wherever' – a statement that some interpreted as a jab at her menstrual cycle.
His candidacy brought women out of the woodwork to accuse him of sexual misconduct of varying severity, including one woman who sued him for an alleged teen rape – and then withdrew the case when her story fell apart.
Another, a Venezuelan former Miss Universe, alleged that he called her 'Miss Piggy' when she gained weight after winning the crown, and denigrated her Latina heritage by calling her 'Miss Housekeeping' in private.
Trump denied every charge, calling his accusers rank opportunists who sought 15 minutes of fame. Some, he said, were Democratic plants, and others were cashing in.
He had a harder time explaining a hot-mic audio recording from a 2005 taping of Access Hollywood, in which he was recorded lewdly describing the ease with which famous men could sexually assault women in their orbits.
Through it all, Trump's campaign crowds grew, with his reality-show star power outdrawing every other candidate in both parties.
One early rally drew more than 30,000 people to an Alabama football stadium. Late in the general election cycle, 17,500 fans blanketed a field near Fort Bragg in North Carolina to hear him speak.
People in the crowd at Hillary Clinton's 2016 US presidential Election Night event watch results begin to come in on a big screen at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York
Supporters of Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Hillary Clinton watch election returns showing Donald Trump winning in Texas at the election night rally in New York
People in the crowd at Hillary Clinton's 2016 US presidential Election Night event watch results begin to come in on a big screen at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York
Jim Livesey and Jill Huennekens (left in sunglasses) of Milwaukee cheer at Clinton's election night rally the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
People cheer as as its projected that Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won New York state
Supporters of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton watch and wait at her election night rally in New York
Michael Chamberlain of New Haven, Connecticut, stands in the crowd of Clinton's overflow crowd outside the nominee's election night rally at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
Supporters watch election results in Clinton's overflow crowd outside the nominee's election night rally at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
A man vacuums US national flags on the stage that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will speak later during election night at the New York Hilton Midtown in New York
Supporters of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump gather outside Trump Tower in New York City on election day
THE ATTACK ON THE 'DISHONEST MEDIA' - WHO COVERED HIM WITH GLEE
Ratings-seeking news outlets clambered all year to interview Trump, even while reporters and editorial writers clobbered him as a carnival barker who demeaned the electoral process with a seemingly unsophisticated and unstudied approach to policy and politicking.
In reply he branded them 'the dishonest media,' telling thousands at a time that reporters 'are really horrible people.' In time his crowds began to relate to the press like an opposing sports team, showering them with boos and chanting 'CNN sucks! CNN sucks!'
Trump's massive media exposure created both fans and detractors, hardening positions on both ends of the political spectrum – and inside the GOP, where 'NeverTrump' Republicans pledged not to support him even at the cost of delivering the White House to a second Clinton.
Ultimately Trump won over most of his party's establishment as he lent his charisma to fundraising events that benefited conservative candidates in other races.
But more importantly, an army of torch-bearing, pitchfork-wielding 'Trumpkins,' as his political enemies styled them, embraced his rough edges as signs of solidarity.
When Clinton carped that 'half' of them were backward-thinking enough to be 'irredeemable' and to belong in a 'basket of deplorables,' Trump fans wore the terms like badges of honor.
Those insults from the former Obama administration official they loved to hate fired them up, almost as much as Trump's pledge to 'drain the swamp' in Washington.
Trump rallies created their own subculture, with his self-styled deplorable fans chanting 'Lock her up!' to vent their outrage at Clinton's ability to escape criminal charges over thousands of classified documents found among emails on a homebrew server.
'The system is rigged!' Trump would exclaim, warning that political elites could ultimately cheat on Election Day the way Clinton's campaign cheated by learning debate questions in advance from partisan TV talking-heads.
At every campaign stop, though, the amusements and mob-scene indignation would overshadow serious concerns like jobs, taxes, a pledged repeal of the Obamacare law, and the omnipresent border wall that he pledged Mexico itself would fund.
Luckily for Trump, a handful of swing states, especially Ohio and Michigan, also included economically devastated rust-belt areas from which shifting U.S. trade policy had sent jobs offshore – or south of the border.
His status as a successful real estate tycoon with a payroll in the hundreds of millions of dollars bought him credibility enough to question America's longstanding trade deficits, record law labor participation rates and stagnant economy.
Civic duty: Donald and Melania Trump cast their ballots on Monday in New York City (above)
The couple that votes together...: Hillary Clinton was joined by husband Bill as she made her way into their polling station in Chappaqua
Big day: An emotional Hillary Clinton was seen as she head in to cast her vote in Chappaqua, New York (above)
Clinton (R) and her husband former U.S. President Bill Clinton vote at Douglas Grafflin Elementary School on Tuesday
Chelsea Clinton headed back to New York City after spending the previous night campaigning with her mother (above with Marc Mezvinsky and daughter Charlotte)
Trump and his wife Melania cast their votes together in at PS-59 New York City on Tuesday
Big moment: Trump gets his ballot to fill out while his son-in law Jared Kushner waits behind him
Sticker time: Ivanka placed a sticker on Arabella's coat after casting her vote on Tuesday (above)
HOW HE MADE 'CROOKED HILLARY' STICK
'I alone can fix it,' he said of the economic system that he successfully manipulated for decades in order to build his company.
He finished his campaign with a pair of five-state barnstorming days, wrapping up his final rally after 1:00 a.m. in Michigan – a state few thought a Republican could win.
Trump contested Minnesota, too, along with Virginia and Pennsylvania, states that the Democratic Party took for granted.
His campaign manager Kellyanne Conway – the third person to helm the operation – led him into those 'blue' states with the same disregard for convention that Trump brought to nearly everything.
The GOP standard-bearer's tactical toolbox, though, wasn't everything a campaign pro could expect, given the candidate's personal wealth.
Trumpworld had virtually no 'ground game' until late in the general election. Clinton and the Democrats enjoyed a huge advantage with phone trees, door-knocking and other retail campaign operations.
As it turned out that was meaningless.
Instead he relied on little more than his rock-concert crowds, his telegenic personality and practiced delivery, his social media accounts that reach more than 20 million people, and his gift for branding.
One of the longer-terms ripples of his victory is a top-to-bottom evisceration of the massively expensive conventional wisdom about how to win an American election.
Trump developed nicknames for opponents who posed threats to his success, beginning with 'low energy' Jeb Bush, 'Lyin' Ted' Cruz and 'Little Marco' Rubio.
In the end the one that generated the most ink was 'crooked Hillary' Clinton, an epithet that encapsulated conservatives' anger at a candidate who seemed to operate by a set of financial and ethics rules that are unavailable to others.
He said on Monday that he's not interested in becoming a chapter in a political science textbook.
'If we don't win, Trump said during his penultimate rally in new Hampshire, 'it will be the biggest waste of energy, time and money in my whole life.'
Right hand woman: Huma Abedin also joined the Clintons as they cast their vote on Thursday, dressed in a unique outfit for the big day
Let's do this: Kaine said in an interview on Thursday morning that he believes Clinton has a good shot at winning what he calls the 'checkmate' states like North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Florida
Filling it out: Pence and his wife Karen cast their ballots together in Indiana before preparing to fly to New York
Eric Trump, son of of Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump, looks at his wife Lara Yunaska's voting booth in New York City
HIS WIFE, HIS ROCK - THE FIRST FIRST LADY NOT BORN A CITIZEN
Trump's Slovenian wife Melania has been his quiet rock since the moment they descended a Trump Tower elevator together in June 2015 to announce his White House run.
She now becomes the first foreign-born First Lady since Louisa Adams, wife of John Quincy Adams, president from 1825 to 1829 - and the first not born a citizen, as Mrs. Adams' father was the American consul in London when she was born.
On that first day of the campaign she stepped aside to let daughter Ivanka give the builder-politician a proper introduction. This dynamic played out throughout the entire campaign, with Melania only speaking publicly a handful of times.
First she addressed a Milwaukee crowd in the spring, and then on the opening night of the Republican National Convention speech in Cleveland – with Donald making the unconventional move to come to the convention stage early to introduce her with his own rock star entrance.
Mrs. Trump impressed the crowd in a white bell-sleeved sheath, but it didn't take long for people to notice similarities between her speech and one Michelle Obama delivered at the Democratic National Convention in 2008.
Eventually a longtime Trump employee, the speechwriter, explained that Melania had read passages from the Obama address to her aloud, and took the fall for not checking her final draft closeley enough to be sure she wasn't plagiarizing the first lady.
She said in a statement that she offered her resignation, but the Republican nominee wouldn't take it because 'people make innocent mistakes and ... we learn and grow from these experiences.'
Donald Trump used the incident for fodder when he addressed the Al Smith dinner in October, complaining about media bias in one of his least controversial jokes of the night.
'Michelle Obama gives a speech and everyone loves it. My wife, Melania, gives the same exact speech and people get on her case!' Trump joked.
Through the fall Melania Trump made only rare appearances on the campaign trail, mainly turning up at debates. The heavy lifting was left to adult children Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr.
But her last campaign speech, an unannounced five minutes in Wilmington, North Carolina, drew out her husband's tender side.
When she was done introducing him, he hugged and kissed her. And his open mic caught a tender moment as he murmured to Melania in a soft voice of thanks: 'Awww, baby...'
Daughter Ivanka's own Republican National Convention speech helped humanize her dad and may have helped him win over some female voters when she rolled out a policy platform that proposed tax deductions for child care.
Vote and shop: Voters cast their ballots on Election Day at the Foodland Grocery Store and Mercado in National City, California
Garage station: Poll worker Bea Iwig helps first time voter John Wickenhiser complete his ballot in San Diego
Melania resurfaced on the campaign trail last Thursday to say that her pet cause as first lady would be an anti-bullying effort to make social media safe again.
'Our culture has gotten too mean and too rough especially to children and teenagers,' she told a suburban Philadelphia crowd, while not mentioning her husband's habit of insulting and baiting his critics on Twitter.
One day later, however, the Associated Press reported that the former model was paid for 10 modeling jobs in the United States before she had legal authorization to work in the country.
She has declined to publicly release her immigration records, but published a letter fom her immigration lawyer saying she never violated the law.
Tuesday's earliest exit polls offered hints about voters' moods but steered clear of reporting which candidate most of them were choosing.
The Morning Consult polling firm found that Americans were most likely to say their chief aim in choosing a president was finding a 'strong leader' – which suggests Donald Trump could have an edge.
Nearly 7 in 10 said they were dissatisfied or angry about the way the federal government is run.
But 54 per cent also said they approved of Obama's job performance, confounding expectations of what was described for months as a 'change election.'
There were signs of election fatigue, with 85 per cent telling pollsters they 'just want it to be over.'
Another 72 per cent described their mood as 'anxious'; 71 per cent said they were 'nervous' about the election's result.
Only about 4 in 10 were excited about having either Clinton or Trump as president, reflecting the chronic unpopularity of both nominees.
Exit polling from ABC News found voters believed neither Trump nor Clinton was 'honest and trustworthy,' with 65 per cent saying the Republican didn't qualify, compared with 59 per cent for the Democrat.
Additionally, 56 percent of voters said Clinton had the right temperament to be president, while just 34 percent paid the same compliment to Trump.
Rock Mountain voters: Local residents vote at a polling location for the 2016 US presidential election in Denver, Colorado
Clay Smith, who cast his ballot late last night, saw four of his fellow residents in Dixville Notch supported Clinton/Kaine, while two ballots were cast for Trump/Pence. One protest voter wrote in Mitt Romney with the final vote going Johnson/Weld
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