Trump wins.

• Author: Zissou, Rebecca
• Position: Cover story

Donald Trump pulled off a stunning upset to win the White House. Can he govern a divided nation?

After one of the most divisive elections in U.S. history, Republican Donald Trump won the presidency on November 8, defeating Democrat Hillary Clinton.

"It is time for us to come together as one united people," he told a crowd of elated supporters in New York, adding, "I will be president for all Americans."

The election was largely decided by tight contests in a handful of battleground states, including Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and North Carolina. Trump won more than the 270 electoral votes (out of 538 total) needed to claim victory.

The bitterly fought race was unlike anything the American public had experienced before. It pitted a real estate developer and TV celebrity against a former First Lady, U.S. senator, and secretary of state. The final weeks of the campaign were particularly tense, with the candidates hurling accusations and personal insults at each other.

"It's been the nastiest election ever," says Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University in Texas.

Defying the Polls

Trump's victory took many Americans--including politicians and analysts--by surprise. In fact, for much of the general election campaign, most polls showed Clinton significantly ahead. Her lead shrank in the final weeks, however, especially after a surprise announcement from the F.B.I. less than two weeks before Election Day: After previously clearing Clinton of any criminal wrongdoing related to her use of a private email server as secretary of state, the agency said it had found new emails. Nine days later, the F.B.I. said it had again found no evidence of wrongdoing, but the episode breathed new life into the Trump campaign.

With his victory, Trump is the only person elected to the nation's top job who has never previously held public office or served as a high-ranking military leader.

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After his inauguration, set for January 20, Trump is expected to focus on the economy, national security, and immigration (see box, facing page). Trump has said that he wants to deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. and build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. He's also said he favors destroying the oil fields in the Middle East that help fund the terrorist group ISIS.

At home, Trump's No. 1 priority will be the economy. The nation as a whole has largely recovered from the economic crisis that began...