Hillary Clinton speaks to Pennsylvania voters during an early voting event at The Great Hall at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on November 4, 2016.

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump said at a debate last month that he would appoint a special prosecutor to examine Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state and remarked that she would "be in jail" if he were president.

In about two months, he'll have the power to potentially make that a reality.

He wouldn't, of course, be able to snap his fingers and throw his political rival behind bars. He would have to order his attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor, then count on that special prosecutor to agree with his assessment that Clinton's email practices violated criminal laws about mishandling classified information. And even if he did all that and Clinton was charged, she would still be afforded a trial, and Trump's special prosecutor would have to contend with evidence that led the original team of federal investigators to conclude there was not sufficient basis to believe a crime occurred.

Getting that process started, though, would not seem that difficult. Trump gets to pick and appoint the attorney general.

FBI Director James B. Comey recommended in July that neither Clinton nor her aides be charged with any crimes in connection with her use of a private email server during her term at the State Department, saying "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring such a case. He said in recent weeks that his conclusion was unchanged, even after investigators examined a new, potentially relevant batch of emails discovered on a computer belonging to disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner, the husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin.

Trump rallies have sometimes been marked with chants of "lock her up," and his supporters repeated those cries as the Republican moved toward an upset victory Tuesday night.

Even prominent conservatives in the legal field have said that for Trump to act to jail Clinton would be inadvisable, and it would politicize the Justice Department in an alarming way. Former attorney general Michael Mukasey, one of Clinton's most vocal critics on the email issue, told The Washington Post last month, "It would be like a banana republic." Those remarks came after Trump broached the idea of a special prosecutor at a debate.

"I didn't think I'd say this, but I'm going to say it, and I hate to say it. But if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation, because there has never been so many lies, so much deception," Trump said. "There has never been anything like it, and we're going to have a special prosecutor."

Later, when Clinton said, "It's just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country," Trump replied, "Because you'd be in jail."

Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway later said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that Trump's remark about jailing Clinton was a "quip." She added, "As for the special prosecutor, I think that's Donald Trump channeling the frustration he hears from thousands of voters out on the stump every day."

During his victory speech, Trump said, "It is time for us to come together as one united people" and said that Clinton had "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." He made no mention of Clinton's emails.

President Barack Obama could short-circuit the affair entirely, pardoning Clinton before he leaves office in January. Legal analysts have said that could happen even though Clinton is not charged with any crimes, and the FBI and Justice Department have said no charges are appropriate.

A Trump spokeswoman did not immediately return an email seeking comment.</s>…Votes, does interviews and tweets on election day

Republican Presidential Candidate, Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit in Clark County, where Las Vegas is located, claiming that early voting was unfairly extended.

“Let me tell you, if I don’t win I will consider it a tremendous waste of time, energy and money,” Trump told Fox & Friends early Tuesday. The New York businessman later cast his vote at a school in Manhattan, joking with reporters: “Tough decision.”

Asked if he would concede the election should he lose, Trump responded, “We’ll see what happens.” Some voters at Trump’s polling place cheered his presence; others booed and yelled “phony” at the Republican candidate.

“I’m very excited,” he told reporters. “It’s a great opportunity. There’s tremendous enthusiasm you see it all over the country, all over the world. It’s a great feeling.” While pre-election surveys gave an edge to Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, Trump told Fox News “I think a lot of the polls are phony,” and predicted victory.

Trump, who at one point considered more campaigning on Election Day, planned to stay out sight most of Tuesday, making calls, conducting interviews, and using social media. A round of radio and television show call-ins is also on the schedule, aides said, as is a private reception at Trump Tower for friends and supporters.

In a last-day fundraising solicitation, Trump told supporters, “I’ll be on calls with our political director all day, determining which states need last-minute resources.”

Trump’s day ends with what aides are billing as a “victory party” at a Midtown hotel. Throughout the final weeks of the campaign, Trump warned about the prospect of a “rigged” election based on alleged voter fraud and biased news coverage. The Republican nominee has consistently declined to say whether he would honor the results of the election if he loses.</s>Trump told supporters at a rally early on Wednesday he had received a call from his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton congratulating him on his victory.

From his grand Trump Tower escalator entrance into the Republican presidential race on June 16, 2015, Trump managed to be simultaneously charismatic and combative, elitist and populist, lewd and pious as he drilled into a lode of polarity and anti-Washington anger among American voters.

It was his first run for public office and Trump, a real-estate developer, reality television star and self-confessed owner of a big ego, called it a movement, not a campaign. He drew large, enthusiastic crowds to rallies where people cheered him for "just saying what everybody's thinking." Critics labeled him misogynistic, ill-informed, uncouth, unpresidential, a racist, a hypocrite, a demagogue and a sexual predator, all accusations he denied.

It took Trump, 70, little more than 10 months to vanquish 16 other Republican candidates and win the party's nomination, becoming the first major party nominee without government experience since General Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s. He drew a record number of votes in primary contests but in so doing created a rift in the Republican Party.

Then Trump squared off against Clinton, 69, in a race marked by controversies that included upheaval in his staff, charges he had groped women and unheeded demands that he release his tax records. He said that as president he would investigate Clinton for her use of email while secretary of state. He vowed to send her to jail.

His campaign took a scandalous turn in October with the release of a 2005 video in which Trump, unaware he was being recorded, told a television entertainment reporter that he liked to kiss women without invitation and that, because he was rich and famous, he could grab them by the genitals with impunity.

Trump dismissed the remarks as "locker room talk" and denied the subsequent accusations from more than 10 women who said he had groped them or made unwanted sexual advances.

Throughout his campaign - and especially in his Republican convention speech in July - Trump described a dark America that had been knocked to its knees by China, Mexico, Russia and Islamic State. The American dream was dead, he said, smothered by malevolent business interests and corrupt politicians, and he said he alone could revive it.

Trump said he would make America great again through the force of his personality, negotiating skill and business acumen. He offered vague plans to win economic concessions from China, to build a wall on the southern U.S. border to keep out undocumented immigrants and to make Mexico pay for it. He vowed to repeal Obamacare while being the "greatest jobs president that God ever created" and has proposed refusing entry to the United States of people from war-torn Middle Eastern nations, a modified version of an earlier proposed ban on Muslims.

Trump promoted himself as the ultimate success story. He dated beautiful women, married three of them, had his own television show and erected skyscrapers that bore his name in big gold letters. Everything in his life was the greatest, the hugest, the classiest, the most successful, he said, even though critics assailed his experiences with bankruptcies, the failures of his Atlantic City, New Jersey, casinos and what they viewed as the misplaced pride he showed when presented with evidence he avoided paying taxes.

Trump had flirted with presidential runs in the past and some initially saw his campaign as a vanity project meant to indulge his ego and burnish his brand. It was expected to be short-lived but as the election season progressed, he became the Republican front-runner, winning state nominating contests despite an unconventional campaign that relied on large-scale rallies and mostly ignored grass-roots work.

His hired advisers came to realize there was only so much they could do to rein in Trump. His inner circle was dominated by his three oldest children - Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka, along with Ivanka's husband, Jared Kushner.

The rise of Trump, once a registered Democrat, threatened to blow up the Republican Party. Its establishment challenged his commitment to their tenets and organized against him. Prominent Republicans - including former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush and congressional leaders - shunned him or offered lukewarm support.

Trump used Twitter as a weapon, firing off insults and mockery at those who offended him, including "Crooked Hillary" and Republican rivals "Little Marco" Rubio, Jeb "Low Energy" Bush and "Lyin' Ted" Cruz.

Another target was the family of a Muslim U.S. Army captain who died fighting in Iraq after the soldier's father had spoken against Trump at the Democratic National Convention. Trump sniped back for days despite his advisers urging him to move on.

As of late October, The New York Times had counted 282 people and things he had insulted on Twitter since declaring his candidacy.

The Trump candidacy was brimming with contradictions. The candidate who vowed to bring back jobs to the United States had his clothing line and campaign hats manufactured in foreign countries. The man who decried the corrupting power of money in politics boasted of having bought influence himself.

Undocumented workers had been used on his building projects but as a candidate Trump vowed to ship illegal immigrants out of the country. He said no one respected women more than he did but even before the groping accusations emerged, he was branded a misogynist for making fun of the appearance of rival candidate Carly Fiorina and an apparent reference to the menstrual cycle of Fox News' Megyn Kelly.

Trump's campaign trail demeanor seemed to draw from his experiences as host of "The Apprentice," a reality TV show where he barked a crowd-pleasing "You're fired!" at contestants who fell short in competitions.

His speeches were often unscripted and featured boasts on everything from his money to his IQ. He peppered them with dubiously sourced declarations, misperceptions and false statements.

He suggested that gun rights activists could act to stop Clinton from nominating liberal U.S. Supreme Court justices, a remark the Clinton campaign called dangerous.

Trump boasted of a fortune he put at $10 billion, although in September Forbes magazine estimated it at $3.7 billion, making him the 156th richest American.

Trump regularly made comments that would have doomed a more conventional candidate, such as when he said his supporters were so loyal that he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue in New York and not lose a single vote.

In May he would draw accusations of racism for questioning the impartiality of a judge - born in the United States to Mexican immigrants - who was hearing a lawsuit against him.

No other candidate referred to the size of his genitals during a debate. He was flattered when Russian President Vladimir Putin called him a “brilliant and talented leader.” Trump mocked Senator John McCain, the Republicans’ presidential candidate in 2008, for having been captured during the Vietnam War and said he wanted to punch a protester in the face at a Trump rally.

Trump was born to money on June 14, 1946, in the New York City borough of Queens, the fourth of five children of Fred Trump, who would become one of the city's biggest developers and landlords, and his wife. It was Fred Trump who taught Donald the value of self-promotion and a killer instinct.

By his own admission, Trump was not an easy child and in the eighth grade his parents sent him to the New York Military Academy in hopes of instilling needed discipline. Through student and medical deferments during the Vietnam War, Trump would never serve in the U.S. military but said the school gave him "more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military."

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Trump went to work for his father's company, which focused on the outer New York City boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island and owned an estimated 15,000 apartments. In 1973 the Trumps were charged with racial bias in their rental practices before reaching a settlement with the U.S. government.

With a $1 million loan from his father, Trump eventually went into business himself in Manhattan, where he became a regular at some of the city's most exclusive clubs and developed a reputation as a ladies' man.

He soon made his mark with a series of real estate and development deals, including redoing an old hotel at New York's Grand Central Terminal. In 1983 he opened his flagship, 58-story Trump Tower, which serves as both his primary residence and Trump Organization headquarters.

More projects around the world would follow, including golf courses, the Mar-a-Lago private resort in Florida, New York's venerable Plaza Hotel and casinos.

Trump's projects had mixed success. The flops included the real estate-oriented Trump University, Trump Mortgage, Trump Airlines and Trump Vodka but it was his experience with four casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, that took the golden luster off his empire.

Timothy O'Brien, author of "TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald," wrote that in the 1990s Trump was out of money and twice had to go to his siblings for loans. A former employee said the Trump Organization would have shut down if the family had not come through but Trump disputed that in his 1997 book "Trump: The Art of the Comeback."

While he never filed for personal bankruptcy, the downturn in the gaming industry sent parts of Trump's corporate empire to bankruptcy court in 1991, 1992, 2004 and 2009. In the 2009 bankruptcy, the unsecured creditors received less than a penny on the dollar for their claim. Trump resigned as chairman four days before the filing.</s>President-elect Donald Trump smiles as he arrives to speak at an election night rally, Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016, in New York.

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump claimed his place Wednesday as America's 45th president, an astonishing victory for the celebrity businessman and political novice who capitalized on voters' economic anxieties, took advantage of racial tensions and overcame a string of sexual assault allegations on his way to the White House.

Trump's triumph over Hillary Clinton, not declared until well after midnight, will end eight years of Democratic dominance of the White House. He'll govern with Congress fully under Republican control and lead a country deeply divided by his rancorous campaign against Clinton. He faces fractures within his own party, too, given the numerous Republicans who either tepidly supported his nomination or never backed him at all.

As he claimed victory, Trump urged Americans to "come together as one united people."

Clinton, who hoped to become the nation's first female president, called her Republican rival to concede but did not plan to speak publicly until Wednesday morning.

President Barack Obama invited Trump to meet with him at the White House on Thursday to discuss transition, and the White House said the president planned to address the election results in a statement Wednesday. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama called Trump to congratulate him and also called Clinton to convey his admiration for the "strong campaign she waged throughout the country."

The White House said Obama's televised statement Wednesday would focus on "what steps we can take as a country to come together after this hard-fought election season."

Trump, who spent much of the campaign urging his supporters on as they chanted "lock her up," said the nation owed Clinton "a major debt of gratitude" for her years of public service. Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said Obama and Trump had "a very nice talk" when the president called to congratulate him in the early hours Wednesday.

The Republican blasted through Democrats' longstanding firewall, carrying Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, states that hadn't voted for a GOP presidential candidate since the 1980s. He needed to win nearly all of the competitive battleground states, and he did just that, including Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and others.

Global stock markets and U.S. stock futures plunged, but later recovered somewhat, reflecting investor concern over what a Trump presidency might mean.

A New York real estate developer who lives in a sparkling Manhattan high-rise, Trump forged a striking connection with white, working class Americans who feel left behind in a changing economy and diversifying country. He cast immigration, both from Latin America and the Middle East, as the root of the problems plaguing many Americans and tapped into fears of terrorism emanating at home and abroad.

GOP Senate candidates fended off Democratic challengers in key states, including North Carolina, Indiana and Wisconsin. Republicans also maintained their grip on the House.

Senate control means Trump will have great leeway in appointing Supreme Court justices, which could mean a shift to the right that would last for decades.

Trump has pledged to usher in sweeping changes to U.S. foreign policy, including building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and suspending immigration from countries with terrorism ties. He's also praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and spoken of building a better relationship with Moscow, worrying some in his own party who fear he'll go easy on Putin's provocations.

Putin sent him a telegram of congratulations early Wednesday.

Trump upended years of political convention on his way to the White House, leveling harshly personal insults against his rivals, deeming Mexican immigrants rapists and murderers, and vowing to temporarily suspend Muslim immigration to the U.S. He never released his tax returns, breaking with decades of campaign tradition, and eschewed the kind of robust data and field efforts that helped Obama win two terms in the White House, relying instead on his large, free-wheeling rallies to energize supporters. His campaign was frequently in chaos, and he cycled through three campaign managers.

Conway, his final campaign manager, touted the team's accomplishments as the final results rolled in, writing on Twitter that "rally crowds matter" and "we expanded the map."

Clinton spent months warning voters that Trump was unfit and unqualified to be president. But the former senator and secretary of state struggled to articulate a clear rationale for her own candidacy.

She faced persistent questions about her honesty and trustworthiness. Those troubles flared anew late in the race, when FBI Director James Comey announced a review of new emails from her tenure at the State Department. On Sunday, just two days before Election Day, Comey said there was nothing in the material to warrant criminal charges against Clinton.

Trump will inherit an anxious nation, deeply divided by economic and educational opportunities, race and culture.

Exit polls underscored the fractures: Women nationwide supported Clinton by a double-digit margin, while men were significantly more likely to back Trump. More than half of white voters backed the Republican, while nearly 9 in 10 blacks and two-thirds of Hispanics voted for the Democrat.

Doug Ratliff, a 67-year-old businessman from Richlands, Virginia, said Trump's election was one of the happiest days of his life.

"This county has had no hope," said Ratliff, who owns strip malls in an area badly beaten by the collapse of the coal industry. "Things will change. I know he's not going to be perfect. But he's got a heart. And he gives people hope."

The Republican Party's tortured relationship with its nominee was evident right to the end. Former President George W. Bush and wife Laura Bush declined to back Trump, instead selecting "none of the above" when they voted for president, according to spokesman Freddy Ford.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, a reluctant Trump supporter, called the businessman earlier in the evening to congratulate him, according to a Ryan spokeswoman. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the American people "have chosen a new direction for our nation."

Associated Press writers Catherine Lucey, Jonathan Lemire, Lisa Lerer and Jill Colvin and AP Polling Director Emily Swanson contributed to this report.</s>In the early hours of Election Day, the prevailing mood among the coterie of popular websites, internet communities and social media users who support Donald Trump was electric.

The polls weren’t looking all that good, and the polls of polls were looking even worse. But in the early hours of Election Day, the prevailing mood among the coterie of popular websites, internet communities and social media users who support Donald Trump was electric.

On Breitbart News Network, a website whose chairman, Stephen K. Bannon, took a leave of absence in August to become chief executive of Trump’s campaign, headlines blared. “Trump Biggest Lead Yet in Most Accurate Poll,” read one. Another headline below: “Vegas Oddsmaker Predicts Brexit-Like Victory for Trump.”

At the blog Gateway Pundit, which has promoted the idea that Trump’s social media support reveals deep flaws in polling, a writer touted a surprising new result (in uppercase letters): “Wow! Hillary Support Crashes in Reuters Likely Turnout Poll.” (A few hours later, an update read, “Reuters Deletes Poll.”)

In the Trump community on Reddit, where scores of ardent supporters have gathered over the last year, users set a similar tone, albeit in terms of their own. “Wakey Wakey Centipedes,” posted one user (in capital letters), using a term of endearment for fellow Trump supporters, “It’s Time to Vote.” Another (in capital letters) required little interpretation: “Merry Trumpmas!!!!”

This loosely organized, self-described alternative media has provided a steady stream of content, and affirmation, for Trump supporters over the last year, inverting, mimicking and frequently mocking what it sees as an ideologically bankrupt mainstream media. It is unabashed in its support for Trump, and in its disdain for his opponents. It has also served not just as an alternative news source but also as a testing ground of sorts, to see if messages, and tactics, might be ready for broader consumption.

So Tuesday morning was something like a respite — a moment to regroup after a year of all-out war — before the final battle. (Reddit users spent the weekend scouring WikiLeaks for evidence of, among other things, a human-trafficking conspiracy.) Yet it didn’t last long. By midday, the tone was changing, and celebratory headlines were making way for a story line that has recently become more familiar: The election is rigged.

The first reports came almost immediately after voting started; within hours, those claims were being amplified, often uncritically, throughout the pro-Trump media.

The Philadelphia Republican Party began posting complaints on Twitter about voter fraud in the city shortly after 6 a.m., saying Republican poll watchers had been barred from polling sites — the complaint was picked up by the conservative website The Daily Caller, gained steam on Reddit and proliferated across Twitter and Facebook.

Separate reports that electronic voting machines in Pennsylvania were switching votes meant for Trump to Hillary Clinton reached Infowars — a site, long focused on conspiracies, that has recently gained prominence as a pro-Trump outlet — only to be further fueled by a viral video, described as from a Pennsylvania voter, showing difficulty voting for Trump on a touch-screen machine. Soon, The Drudge Report posted a link on Facebook to an article on a conservative website featuring the video with the (uppercase) caption: “Voters report seeing Trump votes switch to Clinton before their eyes . . . .”

By the time a Nevada judge denied a request from Trump’s campaign to have votes impounded on the ground that poll workers had illegally extended early-voting hours, and Trump himself suggested in radio and television interviews Tuesday that he might not accept the result of the election, the floodgates had been opened.

Trump has frequently expressed doubt about the integrity of the voting process, at campaign events as well as on the night of the 2012 presidential election. “This election is a total sham and a travesty,” he said on Twitter after President Barack Obama’s re-election. “We are not a democracy!”

So it should come as no surprise that Trump’s most reliably supportive voices on the internet were ready to back up that narrative. Project Veritas, which films undercover videos and orchestrates political stunts and then shares them through social media and other websites, released a video purporting to show a woman wearing a head scarf and claiming the ballot of Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin in New York City. In another video, James O’Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas, was in a car trailing what he called “a pastor’s bus” that was transporting people to the polls in Philadelphia. O’Keefe promised evidence of people doing “improper things, busing people around.”

By early evening, before the polls had closed, the same alternative media ecosystem that had fostered a sense of confidence and calm in the morning had made allowances for either outcome. “Only Correct Public Brexit Poll Predicts Trump Victory,” said the top headline on Breitbart, all in capital letters, with a photo of Trump pumping his fist. However, right next to the image in a smaller typeface (though still all in capitals), was a hedge, courtesy of a series of updating headlines. “Reports of Voter Fraud Hit Social Media,” one stated. Another provided a hint of what might be in store for the night to come, and the days after: “TROUBLE AT POLLS.”</s>After a month of Presidential debates in which candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton took shots at each other, election day is here.

Either Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump will become the United States of America’s 45th President after an expected 120 million people flock to the polls to vote.

This of course means that Barack Obama's eight years in the White House will also come to end, regardless of who is victorious on the night.

So with election day looming here are all the things you need to know ahead of the event.

What day is the Presidential election?

The US 2016 election will be held on Tuesday, November 8.

What will happen on the day?

The opening times of polling booths will vary across the country's 50 states, due to the sheer size of the US and its several different time zones.

Americans can start voting between 6am - 7am and booths will close between 7pm - 9pm.

When do we find out who has won?

It’s likely we won’t know who has won until the early hours of the following day, November 9. The earliest the result will be called by US TV networks is 11pm ET, which is 4am GMT.

TV stations and media from across the world are also expected to cover the election live from the states.

If the result is too close to call we might not find out who has won until a later date.

There is also the possibility of a tie, and in this case the House of Representatives will decide the winner by ballot.

How can I watch the result here?

From 11.15pm on November 8 to 6am on November 9 BBC One will be reporting live from Times Square with coverage as the results come in. Then BBC Breakfast will take over reporting the events from 6am and BBC Two will air a special show live from Washington at 9am.

ITV's Good Morning Britain will also be broadcasting live from America from 6am until 9.30am on November 9.

What is the story so far?

During September and October Clinton and Trump battled it out in three presidential debates. The first debate was on September 26 and was held in New York, the second was on October 9 in Missouri and the third and final debate took place in Las Vegas on October 19.

Throughout the three there were personal attacks, sneers, accusations, claims of flat out lying - and the clashes have been unlike any other in the history of US elections.</s>Tensions ahead of an always charged USA-Mexico football match this Friday have suddenly been magnified by the election of Donald Trump as America’s 45th president.

Trump ran a scorched-earth campaign that openly denigrated immigrants and called for the mass deportation of Mexicans from the United States. His incendiary rhetoric – Trump called Mexican immigrants, among other things, rapists – could make for an ugly backdrop to a rivalry that has already had its fair share of nasty incidents. There is a real fear that the rhetoric Trump used could make its way into the stands and streets around the stadium, targeting Mexican fans.

American goalkeeper Tim Howard refused to answer questions on Wednesday before training, saying that he wasn’t invested in politics and didn’t vote – but added that if he had, it wouldn’t have been for Trump.

Michael Bradley was more open about the subject, though he took care with his statements. Bradley did not criticize the president-to-be, instead making a plea both for acceptance and for the American people to come together.

“I certainly think given the way everything has gone the last few months, there’s an added layer to this game,” he said. “But my general feeling is that we, as Americans, we trust our system, we respect our democracy and regardless of your beliefs and regardless of how you’ve voted, we have an obligation to come together, get behind our new president and have faith and trust that he will do what’s best for the entire country.”

That type of acceptance may take a while to take hold, as a wave of melancholy has swept the country after Tuesday night’s result. The typically vibrant “Short North” section of Columbus that houses both millennials and many members of the local LGBT community was full of quiet conversation and downcast faces on Wednesday (Columbus, in Franklin County, was won by Hillary Clinton, but areas surrounding it turned red for Trump). Chicago, home of both US Soccer and Barack Obama, was jittery, with protests and gallows humor in evidence. Whether things will change by the time Friday’s game rolls around is doubtful, especially considering the rivalry’s checkered history.

The USA-Mexico rivalry stretches back to 1934, but did not really burst into the American consciousness until the 1990s. Soccer has always been vastly more culturally important in Mexico than in the US; when the American team started to enjoy even modest success, Mexican fans began to chafe. A landmark game – a 1991 win at the Los Angeles Coliseum for the USA in a regional tournament – set a precedent that has now lasted for almost 25 years: the USA have been dominant at home, while Mexico have ruled the roost when games are played at the Azteca.

But tensions between the two teams have steadily risen over the years as both sides have clawed for supremacy in North America. Part of it is the normal sporting tension seen in rivalries across the globe. But part of it is a reflection of the fact that Mexico has long been the poorer cousin to the south, and as a global recession has taken root, Mexican emigres have become scapegoats in many American communities.

Recent USA-Mexico games have seen a ratcheting up of the pressure. Mexican fans have been criticized for booing the American national anthem at several events; racist messages and anti-Mexican signs have been seen in the American crowd. This mirrors a growing hostility between the nations – culminating in Trump’s infamous call for a wall between the nations – that has been steadily brewing.

Despite this, Howard insists that fans will enjoy the spectacle of the game and put aside politics at the gate. When asked what he expected from the US fans on Friday night, he responded with a simple: “I don’t know, they’re going to be excited for hopefully a US win.”

“It’s politics and this is football,” Howard added. “Mexico is going to try and kick our asses and we’re going to try and kick theirs. It’s got nothing to do with politics.”

Sport always tries to pretend it is apolitical. In reality, bringing together two countries that have shared a contentious history three days after the presidential election is going to produce reactions. What the American Outlaws decide to do or what the Mexican fans choose to express during the game may just be banter, but it is likely to take on charged overtones Friday.

Ironically, Trump has also been linked to this famous rivalry: in an ill-judged move, Fox Soccer released a promotional video last October ahead of a must-win playoff game between the nations that featured footage of one of Trump’s speeches. The clip was widely condemned, and Mexico had the last laugh.

Fired up by the insult, El Tri went on to upset the USA 3-2 at the Rose Bowl.

– Visiting American players and fans have often been pelted with objects thrown from the crowd in Mexico. Landon Donovan was hit with bags containing urine at a World Cup qualifier in Mexico City; other fans have been pelted with coins, batteries and bottles. Filmmaker Michael Whalen recalled shielding a 10-year old girl from a hail of bottles while taping a documentary on the rivalry in 2012.

– Donovan incensed Mexican fans in 2004 when local press reported he had urinated on a practice pitch in Guadalajara. (He hadn’t.) Two days later, the USA was serenaded with chants of “Osama, Osama” amid a 4-0 loss, a reference to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

– On-field incidents have ranged from the usual poor sportsmanship to the more extreme, such as a 2007 incident in which goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez attempted to trip American striker Eddie Johnson as he celebrated scoring a goal. In 2009, a Mexico assistant coach slapped an American player, Frankie Hejduk, in the tunnel post-game. Most infamously, Rafa Marquez headbutted Cobi Jones during a 2002 World Cup game, and received a four-match ban.

– Howard memorably ripped into Concacaf, the region’s governing body, after a home game at the Rose Bowl had a post-game awards ceremony conducted entirely in Spanish. Said Howard at the time: “I think it was a fucking disgrace. You can bet your ass if we were in Mexico City, it wouldn’t be in English.”

– Tensions have risen in the stands as well: 32 arrests were made after the last meeting between the two teams, a one-off playoff game at the Rose Bowl. Seventeen fans were also ejected from the game for fighting during the game.</s>Several Ghanaian entertainment personalities have expressed varied sentiments about Donald Trump’s election as the 45th President of the United States.

The billionaire beat Hilary Clinton at the November 8 polls. He won 278 electoral college

After a bitterly fought election, Donald Trump won 47.7% of the votes while Hillary Clinton won 47.5%. This translated into 278 electoral college votes for the Republican and 218 for the Democrat.

Ghanaian entertainment personalities, including Sarkodie, Fuse ODG, Lydia Forson, Yvonne Okoro and Ama K Abebrese have been sharing their views on Trump’s win and the elections in general.

Read some of the tweets below:</s>In a stunning victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, Trump stuck to a plan that worked to perfection in the Republican primary, a campaign built around his blunt-talking celebrity persona, his command of social media, and his anti-establishment message of change.

“Ours was not a campaign, but an incredible and great movement,” Trump said in his victory speech on Wednesday.

It was a movement driven by discontent. The Reuters/Ipsos Election Day poll found that most Americans who came to the polls were clearly angry with the direction of the country. Six out of 10 people said they felt the country is on the wrong track. Some 58 percent said “more and more I don’t identify with what America has become” and 75 percent said “America needs a strong leader to take the country back” from the wealthy.

Those who felt the country was on the wrong track were three times as likely to vote for Trumpas Clinton.

In a bitter and divisive campaign, Trump cleared a series of obstacles that would doom any other candidate: An audio tape in which he talked of groping women; a refusal to release his tax returns; violence at his rallies; his mockery of a disabled reporter; and his attacks on the heritage of a federal judge and the Muslim family of a U.S. soldier.

“He was an imperfect candidate with a near-perfect message,” said Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist who has long backed Trump. “I don’t think a lot of people understood that.”

In a year when voters in the United States and abroad showed their antipathy toward the political establishment, the globalized economy, and corporate welfare, Trump guessed correctly he could ride that wave of discontent to the White House.

He exploited a growing divide in the country between whites and minorities, urbanites and rural residents, the college-educated and the working class. Trump beat Clinton among white men without a college degree by 31 points and white women without a degree by 27 points, according to the Reuters/Ipsos polling.

He also benefited from an opponent with her own flaws. Clinton was continually dragged down by questions over her use of a private email server while secretary of state and the activities of her family foundation, while her corporate-friendly background left some Democrats skeptical and unenthusiastic.

That appeared to cost her support among women, young voters and minorities – three groups that are critical for Democrats to win big. Clinton won each of these groups, but by smaller margins than President Barack Obama held when he defeated Republican candidate Mitt Romney in 2012.

Some 49 percent of women supported Clinton, the first woman nominee of a major party, while 47 percent supported Trump.

Among women between the ages of 18 and 34, about 55 percent supported Clinton, while 38 percent supported Trump. In 2012, 62 percent of young women supported Obama, while 36 percent supported Romney.

White voters, especially men in rural areas, flocked to Trump in record numbers. Trumpappealed to voters unhappy with the hollowing out of the country’s manufacturing sector and fearful of the country’s changing demographics, campaigning on a harsh anti-immigration message.

Trump won 56 percent of the white vote, while Clinton won just 39 percent. He dominated to an even greater degree in rural areas, where he beat Clinton by 27 points.

Trump promised big things: that he would bring jobs back and punish outsourcing corporations, that he would restore the country to some unspecified early time of prosperity and security - even as unemployment tumbled below 5 percent.

Specifics were never Trump’s strength. Instead, he used an “us versus them” message to build voter enthusiasm in places where most Republican candidates never ventured, rural areas with voters who felt ignored by Washington.

Matt Borges, the chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, said Trump, unlike Romney, made voters feel like they mattered.

Before Trump, he said, “we weren’t listening to what voters actually care about.”

Trump thumbed his nose at the extensive get-out-the-vote operation and data-rich organization that are seen as essential to a modern winning campaign.

His campaign relied instead on more unofficial networks of rabid supporters to get the word out. His advisers argued that he would bring scores of neglected white voters back into the political process, including blue-collar Democrats in places such as Pennsylvania. Until Trump, Republicans had not won Pennsylvania since 1988.

Craig Robinson, a veteran of Iowa Republican politics, said pundits underestimated howTrump’s strength in the primaries would carry over to the general election.

“In an election where the conventional wisdom was proven wrong time and time again, they convinced themselves that conventional wisdom would prevail in the general election,” Robinson said. “The voters saw through it.”</s>Supercharging the bluster, hyperbole and media mastery that made him one of the world’s best-known businessmen, Donald Trump upended U.S. democratic traditions during his 17-month quest that eventually led to the White House.

From his grand Trump Tower escalator entrance into the Republican presidential race on June 16, 2015, Trump managed to be simultaneously charismatic and combative, elitist and populist, lewd and pious as he drilled into a lode of polarity and anti-Washington anger among American voters.

In Tuesday’s election against his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, Trump triumphed in his first run for public office. He called it a movement, not a campaign.

He drew enthusiastic crowds to rallies where people cheered him for “just saying what everybody’s thinking.” Critics labeled him misogynistic, ill-informed, uncouth, unpresidential, a racist, a hypocrite, a demagogue and a sexual predator, all accusations he denied.

It took Trump, 70, little more than 10 months to vanquish 16 other candidates and become the first major party nominee since Gen. Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s to have no government experience. He drew a record number of votes in primary contests but in so doing created a rift in the party.

Then he squared off against Clinton, 69, in a race marked by controversies that included upheaval in his staff, charges he had groped women, and his claim — never supported — that Clinton and the media had rigged the election against him.

He shocked many by saying he might not accept the election result if he lost, repudiating a U.S. tradition of peaceful government transition. He said that as president he will investigate Clinton for her use of a private email server while secretary of state — and vowed to send her to jail.

His campaign took a scandalous turn in October with the release of a 2005 video in which Trump, unaware he was being recorded, told a television entertainment reporter that he liked to kiss women without invitation and that, because he was rich and famous, he could grab them by the genitals without recriminations.

Trump dismissed the remarks as “locker room talk” and denied the subsequent accusations from more than 10 women who said he had groped them or made unwanted sexual advances.

Throughout his campaign — and especially in his Republican convention speech in July — Trump described a dark America that had been knocked to its knees by China, Mexico, Russia and the militant Islamic State. The American dream was dead, he said, smothered by malevolent business interests and corrupt politicians, and he said he alone could revive it.

Trump said he will make America great again through the force of his personality, negotiating skill and business acumen. He offered vague plans to win economic concessions from China, to build a wall on the southern U.S. border to keep out undocumented immigrants and to make Mexico pay for it. He vowed to repeal Obamacare while being the “greatest jobs president that God ever created” and has proposed refusing entry to the United States of people from war-torn Middle Eastern nations, a modified version of an earlier proposed ban on Muslims.

Trump promoted himself as the ultimate success story.

He dated beautiful women, married three of them, had his own television reality show and erected skyscrapers that bore his name in big gold letters. Everything in his life was the greatest, the hugest, the classiest and the most successful, he said, even though critics assailed his experiences with bankruptcies, the failures of his Atlantic City, New Jersey, casinos and what they viewed as the misplaced pride he showed when presented with evidence he avoided paying taxes.

Trump had flirted with presidential runs in the past and some initially saw his campaign as a vanity project meant to indulge his ego and burnish his brand. It was expected to be short-lived but as the election season progressed, he became the front-runner, winning state nominating contests despite an unconventional campaign that relied on large-scale rallies and mostly ignored grass-roots work.

His hired advisers came to realize there was only so much they could do to rein him in.

His inner circle was dominated by his three oldest children: Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka, along with Ivanka’s husband, Jared Kushner.

The rise of Trump, once a registered Democrat, threatened to blow up the Republican Party. Its establishment challenged his commitment to their tenets and organized against him. Prominent Republicans — including former Presidents George Bush and George W. Bush and congressional leaders — shunned him or offered lukewarm support.

Trump used Twitter as a weapon, firing off insults and mockery at those who offended him, including “Crooked Hillary” and Republican rivals “Little Marco” Rubio, Jeb “Low Energy” Bush and “Lyin’ Ted” Cruz.

Another target was the family of a Muslim U.S. Army captain who died fighting in Iraq after the soldier’s father had spoken against Trump at the Democratic National Convention. Trump sniped back for days despite advice to move on.

As of late October, The New York Times had counted 282 people and things he had insulted on Twitter since declaring his candidacy.

The Trump candidacy was brimming with contradictions. The candidate who vowed to bring back jobs to the United States had his clothing line and campaign hats manufactured in foreign countries. The man who decried the corrupting power of money in politics boasted of having bought influence himself.

Undocumented workers had been used on his building projects but as a candidate Trump vowed to ship illegal immigrants out of the country. He said no one respected women more than he did but even before the groping accusations emerged, he was branded a misogynist for making fun of the appearance of rival candidate Carly Fiorina and an apparent reference to the menstrual cycle of Fox News’ Megyn Kelly.

Trump’s campaign trail demeanor seemed to draw from his experiences as host of “The Apprentice,” a reality TV show where he barked a crowd-pleasing “You’re fired!” at contestants who fell short in competitions.

His speeches were often unscripted and featured boasts on everything from his money to his IQ. He peppered them with dubiously sourced declarations, misperceptions and false statements.

He suggested that gun rights activists could act to stop Clinton from nominating liberal U.S. Supreme Court justices, a remark the Clinton campaign called dangerous.

Trump boasted of a fortune he put at $10 billion, although in September Forbes magazine estimated it at $3.7 billion, making him the 156th richest American.

Trump regularly made comments that would have doomed a more conventional candidate, such as when he said his supporters were so loyal that he could shoot someone on New York’s 5th Avenue and not lose a single vote.

In May he drew accusations of racism for questioning the impartiality of a judge — born in the United States to Mexican immigrants — who was hearing a lawsuit against him.

No other candidate referred to the size of his genitals during a debate. He was flattered when Russian President Vladimir Putin called him a “brilliant and talented leader.”

Trump mocked Arizona Sen. John McCain, the Republicans’ presidential candidate in 2008, for having been captured during the Vietnam War and said he wanted to punch a protester in the face at a Trump rally.

Trump was born to money on June 14, 1946, in the New York City borough of Queens, the fourth of five children of Fred Trump, who would become one of the city’s biggest developers and landlords, and his wife. It was Fred Trump who taught Donald the value of self-promotion and a killer instinct.

By his own admission, Trump was not an easy child and in the eighth grade his parents sent him to the New York Military Academy in hopes of instilling needed discipline. Through student and medical deferments during the Vietnam War, Trump would never serve in the U.S. military but said the school gave him “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.”

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Trump went to work for his father’s company, which focused on the outer New York City boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island and owned an estimated 15,000 apartments. In 1973 the Trumps were charged with racial bias in their rental practices before reaching a settlement with the U.S. government.

With a $1 million loan from his father, Trump eventually went into business himself in Manhattan, where he became a regular at some of the city’s most exclusive clubs and developed a reputation as a ladies’ man.

He soon made his mark with a series of real estate and development deals, including redoing an old hotel at New York’s Grand Central Terminal. In 1983 he opened his flagship, 58-story Trump Tower, which serves as both his primary residence and Trump Organization headquarters.

More projects around the world would follow, including golf courses, the Mar-a-Lago private resort in Florida, New York’s venerable Plaza Hotel and casinos.

The flops included the real estate-oriented Trump University, Trump Mortgage, Trump Airlines and Trump Vodka but it was his experience with four casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, that took the golden luster off his empire.

Timothy O’Brien, author of “TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald,” wrote that in the 1990s Trump was out of money and twice had to go to his siblings for loans. A former employee said the Trump Organization would have shut down if the family had not come through but Trump disputed that in his 1997 book “Trump: The Art of the Comeback.”

While he never filed for personal bankruptcy, the downturn in the gaming industry sent parts of Trump’s corporate empire to bankruptcy court in 1991, 1992, 2004 and 2009.

In the 2009 bankruptcy, the unsecured creditors received less than a penny on the dollar for their claim. Trump resigned as chairman four days before the filing.
Voters in the United States go to the polls for a range of federal, state and local elections, including the highly publicized presidential election between major party nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.