Republicans were emboldened by Trump’s stunning victory over Hillary Clinton, giving the GOP control of the White House and both chambers of Congress.
Following his meeting with Obama, president-elect Trump will meet with House speaker Paul Ryan at the Capitol Hill Club and majority leader Mitch McConnell at Capitol Hill.
Later in the month, FBI Director James Comey announced that his agency was reviewing new emails that might be relevant to its investigation of her private email server, but just two days before the election, Comey said the emails were either duplicates or not germane and that he was making no change in his previous recommendation against criminal charges. Trump spent years challenging the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency, falsely suggesting Obama may have been born outside the United States.
“Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division”, Trump told screaming supporters gathered at the New York Hilton.
“We’re going to move very strongly on immigration”, he said.
Mr Obama said he had instructed his team to “work as hard as we can to make sure that this is a successful transition for the president-elect”.
Clinton was the favorite among the more educated voters, capturing 61 percent of the vote of those with a post-graduate degree and 51 percent of those with a college degree.
The biggest chunk of uncounted votes is in California. Clinton won all those states, and if the trends continue, she will pad her lead by more than one million votes.
Trump’s sweep of the battleground states that decided the election was commanding.
Trump was also beginning the process of putting together his White House team.
Trump and Obama, who have been harshly critical of each other for years, were meeting for the first time, Trump said.
In claiming the presidency during the wee hours of Wednesday, the incoming Republican president did not mention his most criticized proposals, including calls to rework trade deals and his pledge to build a wall along the U.S. -Mexico border.
Some of the most enthusiastic support for Trump came from far-right and nationalist politicians in Europe such as French opposition figure Marine Le Pen, Matteo Salvini of Italy’s Northern League and British euroskeptic Nigel Farage.
While the ceremonies are underway, staff at the White House will be frantically moving out the remnants of the Obama administration, and preparing the residence and offices for their new inhabitants.
Issues of transparency bubbled up right from the start.
Seated next to Obama after their talks, Trump told reporters: “We really discussed a lot of situations, some wonderful, some difficulties”.
And US investors appeared to be shaking off the shock that initially sent global markets plunging.
“Not my president”, shouted hundreds in NY.
World leaders congratulated Trump on his victory. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had a contentious relationship with Obama, called the Republican a “true friend of Israel”. She added that the campaign “was never about one person or even one election” despite it resulting in a country “more deeply divided” than imagined.