‘This is insane. This is three Brexits’: Trump supporters savour special night
‘This is insane. This is three Brexits’: Trump supporters savour special night
Posted by John P. Bradford // November 10, 2016
Election night at the Hilton hotel in New York began with campaign staff dampening expectations but ended with Donald Trumps victory speech
Just before 3am on Wednesday at the Hilton hotel in Midtown Manhattan, Donald Trump made his entrance to his victory party amid chants of U-S-A! U-S-A!. If they could have heard it in the nearby convention centre where they awaited in vain for Hillary Clinton, it might have sounded like a threat.
Just as at his freewheeling rallies, his entrance to the crowded ballroom was heralded by the theme music of Air Force One, a Hollywood action film starring Harrison Ford as the American president. All eyes turned up to the balcony. There stood a tall figure in dark suit with white shirt, red tie and familiar shock of orange hair. But this was no movie.
This was the president-elect. Trump who at 70 will be the oldest person ever to assume the office clapped and raised a triumphant fist above a blue Make America Great Again banner. He was followed by a royal train of grinning family members, political allies and campaign aides, some scarcely able to believe what just happened. Behind them the curtains were illuminated red, white and blue.
An improbable, rollicking, at times farcical campaign that had begun with a ride down an escalator at Trump Tower in June last year in the days when he was dismissed as a clown posing no possible threat to the republic culminated in an exultant strut down a staircase at a nearby hotel. Trump gave the thumbs up and applauded some more as he walked on to a stage where two red Make America Great Again baseball caps were mounted in glass cases like religious relics.
He took the podium against a backdrop of 24 US flags plus state flags, with son Barron on his left and running mate Mike Pence on his right, as the crowd chanted U-S-A! U-S-A!. After 17 months of bile and braggadocio in which he threatened to jail his opponent, suddenly Trump was Mr Magnanimous: Ive just received a call from Secretary Clinton. She congratulated us its about us on our victory and I congratulated her and her family on a very, very hard-fought campaign.
He added: We owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country. I mean that very sincerely. Now its time for America to bind the wounds of division.
