WASHINGTON
President-elect Donald Trump pulled off a surprise election win to secure his place as the 45th president of the United States.
The billionaire property magnate collected 279 electoral college votes, well above the 270 needed, in Tuesday's poll. His rival Hillary Clinton took 228.
With the victory, the Republican nominee became president-elect at the age of 70. He will be the oldest president to take office, beating Ronald Reagan by a year.
Trump has also become the first president without any political experience in 63 years to win the presidential race after former Gen. Dwight Eisenhower.
He is due to take office on Jan. 20.
In his victory speech, Trump said: “Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division -- we have to get together.
“To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to get together as one united people. It’s time. I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans and this is so important to me.”
Trump was born on June 14, 1946, in New York city as the fifth child of Frederick Trump and Mary MacLeod. He is of German ancestry on his father’s side.
He received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1968 and is currently the chairman and president of the Trump Organization, which he took over from his father in 1971. The organization is the principal holding company for real estate ventures and businesses.
Trump moved his organization's headquarters to Manhattan, New York, and became well-known across America through his hotel chain. He has also appeared in the reality TV show The Apprentice in 2004.
Trump’s net worth is estimated at $3.7 billion, according to Forbes Magazine, who listed him among the world’s 400 richest men.
However, he has been accused of failing to pay tax for the last 18 years.
Criticized for his Islamophobic remarks during the election campaign, Trump was nominated for Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 for “vigorous peace through strength ideology”.
He has been married three times and has five children.
