Analysis
Most of them are willing to dismiss the offensive things Mr Trump has said, if it means his presidency has a chance of reviving their towns.
Think of him as a song you cannot get out of your head.
You really like the tune, but when you finally listen closely to the lyrics, you realise the singer is a bit of a twat.
Does it mean you stop dancing along and humming the song? Probably not.
Donna Kowalczyk and Lynette Villano from Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania said they did not approve of what Mr Trump has said about women — fat pigs, ugly dogs, slobs and disgusting animals you can grab by the genitals and get away with it when you are a celebrity — but they scoff at political correctness.
Ms Kowalczyk, who met Ms Villano through a Trump fan page on Facebook, said:
"And this is coming from a fat woman!" declared Donna.
The Democrats have won each of the last six elections there,
and adding to Democratic confidence on the night was a reminder
Pennsylvania had voted in lock step with neighbouring New York in every
election since 1932.
Pennsylvania is a quintessential rustbelt state, with the hum of productive machinery once coursing through the veins of towns like Wilkes Barre.
When production lines making toys and shoes closed down in the 70s and 80s, the economy of Wilkes Barre went into cardiac arrest.
With few employment prospects in the town, young people left their families to find work elsewhere.
Donna despaired friends wanting to sell their properties could not even give them away.
Set against their own economic reality, it was hard to swallow lectures from Washington about the advantages of globalisation.
Factories have moved offshore, taking jobs with them.
United States President Barack Obama convinced them all to vote for "change they can believe in" — but eight years later, nothing has changed.
Time Magazine's Washington bureau chief Michael Scherer said
that while Mr Trump's methods were unconventional, they tapped an
economic concern that was more important to voters in states like
Pennsylvania than how Mr Trump treats women or some of the "demagoguery"
surrounding the campaign.
The election outcome will likely result in a more isolationist America as President-elect Mr Trump moves to tear up or rewrite free trade agreements and impose tariff walls against China.
Mr Trump's suggestions during the campaign of a 45 per cent tariff on Chinese goods are largely opposed by Congress.
House Congressman Tom Cole said it went against the free trade he and the party stand for.
Manigault has kept a high profile in the 13 years since she met the billionaire businessman as a contestant on his top-rating reality show The Apprentice.
Her experience working in personnel in the Clinton
Administration in the 1990s made her especially qualified to help Mr
Trump when he decided to run last year.
Manigault was hired as the Director of African American engagement during the campaign and is now part of his transition to Government team.
She was adamant her boss is the "most misunderstood man in the world" and said pundits and the press were wrong to assume his billionaire status put him out of reach.
"They think there's a disconnect" between Mr Trump and working-class voters, Manigault said.
Manigault said the incident was inexcusable, but the only person she believed Mr Trump needed to apologise to was his wife.
While he has apologised to Melania, Mr Trump refused to say sorry to others who felt betrayed by him.
After a bruising 20-month election campaign, New Yorkers overwhelmingly want him to express some regret for the harm he caused by referring to Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals and vowing to build a wall to keep them out, threatening to deport 11 million undocumented immigrations and calling for the complete shutdown of Muslim immigration.
It must surely be the first election after which a significant number of voters pray their new leader does not keep his promises.
The protesters have also built symbolic walls of colourful post-it notes across the subway.
Each one features a personal message to the country's new commander-in-chief: "Hug an immigrant"; "Decorate walls don't build them"; "Protect each other".
They did not like the Democratic candidate, so that made switching to the other side easy.
"There are a lot of people my age didn't have the chance to to go to college," Ms Villano said.
"But we always worked for everything we wanted in life.
"That's one thing we in this area have, is a great work ethic, and to be looked down upon by the elite media, it really is very insulting — especially when they would use the word uneducated. Life experience is an education."
For much of the campaign, the New York Times predicted a win for Mrs Clinton with a margin of up to 93 per cent in the week before the election.
Musing on his paper's coverage, New York Times journalist Jim Rutenberg said: "I think it was fair. I also think it was objective … objective in a way it took us to places we're not used to going."
They sparred in a courtroom for seven years after Mr Trump sued O'Brien for allegedly underestimating his net worth.
O'Brien won the case and, in the process, managed to extract significant information from the Trump organisation about the company's financial health and structure.
It was thanks to this litigation Americans learned of how Mr Trump sent his businesses bankrupt in Atlantic City four times, writing off debts to the tax office worth one billion dollars.
Before the relationship turned sour, O'Brien spent a lot of time with Mr Trump and learned a lot about his character.
"The info you get as a candidate is invariably different to what you have as president … everything changes," she said.
Now, we have learnt in some parts it may well be just a fence. In some parts, there will be nothing at all.
It also seems Mr Trump has accepted Mexico probably will not pay for the construction.
During the Republican Party's primaries, Mr Trump insisted all of the about-11 million undocumented immigrants would be deported from the United States.
Lately, that threat has been toned down to attach only to those with criminal intent.
And, according to the President-elect, the oft-repeated Muslim immigration ban has "morphed" into a program of "extreme vetting" which may include a national register of Muslim immigrants modelled on similar schemes used in Japanese-American internment camps.
In his victory speech, Mr Trump spoke of binding the wounds inflicted during a brutal election campaign.
He also promised to bring the country together, but then one of the first and most influential appointments to his White House team was Steve Bannon, who has widely been labelled a racist and an anti-Semite.
The Trump transition team has denied Mr Bannon has extreme views, despite having overseen the incendiary website — Brietbart News, which runs headlines like: "Birth control makes women unattractive and crazy" and "Would you rather your child had feminism or cancer?"
On his farewell tour overseas, Mr Obama has been assuring world leaders of a seamless continuity of control and stability in the White House.
He has listened to his foreign friends and asked that they do not make immediate judgements of his successor.
"Give him a chance," he said.
Updated
Photo:
Donald Trump was delivered the Presidency even though Hillary Clinton garnered more of the popular vote. (Reuters: Mike Segar)
More than 61 million Americans voted for Donald Trump.
To
suggest all of them nodded in furious agreement every time he made an
insensitive or inflammatory comment misunderstands the depths of despair
to which many voters have sunk.Most of them are willing to dismiss the offensive things Mr Trump has said, if it means his presidency has a chance of reviving their towns.
Think of him as a song you cannot get out of your head.
Does it mean you stop dancing along and humming the song? Probably not.
Donna Kowalczyk and Lynette Villano from Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania said they did not approve of what Mr Trump has said about women — fat pigs, ugly dogs, slobs and disgusting animals you can grab by the genitals and get away with it when you are a celebrity — but they scoff at political correctness.
Ms Kowalczyk, who met Ms Villano through a Trump fan page on Facebook, said:
"It's typical men's banter."They told me, as long as he helped improve the country, he could say what he wants.
"And this is coming from a fat woman!" declared Donna.
Trump's methods 'tap economic concern'
Of all the battleground states in this election, Pennsylvania was considered the most unlikely to turn for the Republican.
Pennsylvania is a quintessential rustbelt state, with the hum of productive machinery once coursing through the veins of towns like Wilkes Barre.
When production lines making toys and shoes closed down in the 70s and 80s, the economy of Wilkes Barre went into cardiac arrest.
With few employment prospects in the town, young people left their families to find work elsewhere.
Photo:
Pennsylvania was considered the most unlikely to turn for the Republican Party this election. (ABC News: Zoe Daniel)
Real estate prices plummeted, leaving homes abandoned and boarded up to this day.Donna despaired friends wanting to sell their properties could not even give them away.
Set against their own economic reality, it was hard to swallow lectures from Washington about the advantages of globalisation.
Factories have moved offshore, taking jobs with them.
United States President Barack Obama convinced them all to vote for "change they can believe in" — but eight years later, nothing has changed.
Analysis
- Uhlmann: What kind of leader will Trump be?
- Long: Trump victory a working-class backlash against inequality
- Crabb: Election exposes great divide in female voters
- Daniel: What will a Trump presidency mean for the world?
- Cassidy: Australia not immune from Trump's global waves
- Should we be scared of Trump's access to nuclear weapons?
The election outcome will likely result in a more isolationist America as President-elect Mr Trump moves to tear up or rewrite free trade agreements and impose tariff walls against China.
Mr Trump's suggestions during the campaign of a 45 per cent tariff on Chinese goods are largely opposed by Congress.
House Congressman Tom Cole said it went against the free trade he and the party stand for.
'Most misunderstood man in the world'
Mr Trump's close confidante Omarosa Manigault was relaxed about how her friend and mentor would approach the job of president.Manigault has kept a high profile in the 13 years since she met the billionaire businessman as a contestant on his top-rating reality show The Apprentice.
Photo:
Former The Apprentice contestant Omarosa Manigault was named as
the African-American outreach for Donald Trump's presidential campaign. (Foreign Correspondent: Emma Alberici)
Since then, she has been cast in 30 reality television shows and always plays the villain.
Manigault was hired as the Director of African American engagement during the campaign and is now part of his transition to Government team.
She was adamant her boss is the "most misunderstood man in the world" and said pundits and the press were wrong to assume his billionaire status put him out of reach.
"They think there's a disconnect" between Mr Trump and working-class voters, Manigault said.
"I'm so excited that he has the chance to prove the world wrong."In the countdown to the election, Mr Trump's popularity took a hit with the release of a leaked Access Hollywood tape revealing a lewd rant in which he boasted of sexually assaulting women.
Manigault said the incident was inexcusable, but the only person she believed Mr Trump needed to apologise to was his wife.
While he has apologised to Melania, Mr Trump refused to say sorry to others who felt betrayed by him.
Photo:
Tens of thousands of people across the country have poured onto the streets to protest against Mr Trump's presidency. (Reuters: Patrick T Fallon)
Trump's win spurs protests
Tens of thousands of people across the country have poured onto the streets to protest against Mr Trump's presidency.After a bruising 20-month election campaign, New Yorkers overwhelmingly want him to express some regret for the harm he caused by referring to Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals and vowing to build a wall to keep them out, threatening to deport 11 million undocumented immigrations and calling for the complete shutdown of Muslim immigration.
It must surely be the first election after which a significant number of voters pray their new leader does not keep his promises.
Photo:
Protesters have built symbolic walls of colourful post-it notes across the subway. (Foreign Correspondent: Emma Alberici)
Because of the US electoral college system, Mr Trump was delivered the Presidency even though Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton garnered more of the popular vote.The protesters have also built symbolic walls of colourful post-it notes across the subway.
Each one features a personal message to the country's new commander-in-chief: "Hug an immigrant"; "Decorate walls don't build them"; "Protect each other".
Photo:
Protesters have also built symbolic walls of colourful post-it notes across the subway. (Foreign Correspondent: Emma Alberici)
In Pennsylvania's Wilkes Barre, Lynette Villano could
not believe tens of thousands of people in the big cities were
protesting against Mr Trump's right to free speech."He says what he thinks and I like that. I'm sick of political correctness," Ms Villano said.Both Ms Villano and Ms Kowalczyk had a history of voting Democrat, but thought the time has come to demand real change.
They did not like the Democratic candidate, so that made switching to the other side easy.
"There are a lot of people my age didn't have the chance to to go to college," Ms Villano said.
"But we always worked for everything we wanted in life.
"That's one thing we in this area have, is a great work ethic, and to be looked down upon by the elite media, it really is very insulting — especially when they would use the word uneducated. Life experience is an education."
Media coverage 'objective'
As far as Mr Trump is concerned, The New York Times newspaper is the standard-bearer of the elite media — a group of publications and broadcasters who considered his candidacy illegitimate and took every opportunity to make jokes at his expense.For much of the campaign, the New York Times predicted a win for Mrs Clinton with a margin of up to 93 per cent in the week before the election.
Musing on his paper's coverage, New York Times journalist Jim Rutenberg said: "I think it was fair. I also think it was objective … objective in a way it took us to places we're not used to going."
"There was always a fear it would seem imbalanced … but if one candidate is uttering more, far more falsehoods than the other candidate, you can't balance that. It is what it is."
Photo:
The New York Times had predicted a win for Mrs Clinton with a
margin of up to 93 per cent in the week before the election. (Reuters: Carlos Barria)
There was no love lost between Mr Trump and his official biographer Tim O'Brien.They sparred in a courtroom for seven years after Mr Trump sued O'Brien for allegedly underestimating his net worth.
O'Brien won the case and, in the process, managed to extract significant information from the Trump organisation about the company's financial health and structure.
It was thanks to this litigation Americans learned of how Mr Trump sent his businesses bankrupt in Atlantic City four times, writing off debts to the tax office worth one billion dollars.
Before the relationship turned sour, O'Brien spent a lot of time with Mr Trump and learned a lot about his character.
Photo:
Each note features a personal message to the country's new commander-in-chief. (Foreign Correspondent: Emma Alberici)
"Donald Trump is a serial fabulist to the point of
almost being pathological and that's not going to change when he's
president," he said."Donald Trump will not hesitate to lie if he sees it in his short term self interest."Manigault was more nuanced in her assessment of his campaign pledges.
"The info you get as a candidate is invariably different to what you have as president … everything changes," she said.
"And then political science tells us that how you campaign and how you govern are two very different things."Scherer said Mr Trump made it clear during the campaign everything he said is an opening negotiating position from where he has a lot of room to move.
Trump backing away from campaign commitments
Already, Mr Trump and his key advisers have begun backing away from some of the key commitments of the campaign, including his new 3,000-kilometre wall along the US Mexico border.Now, we have learnt in some parts it may well be just a fence. In some parts, there will be nothing at all.
It also seems Mr Trump has accepted Mexico probably will not pay for the construction.
During the Republican Party's primaries, Mr Trump insisted all of the about-11 million undocumented immigrants would be deported from the United States.
And, according to the President-elect, the oft-repeated Muslim immigration ban has "morphed" into a program of "extreme vetting" which may include a national register of Muslim immigrants modelled on similar schemes used in Japanese-American internment camps.
In his victory speech, Mr Trump spoke of binding the wounds inflicted during a brutal election campaign.
He also promised to bring the country together, but then one of the first and most influential appointments to his White House team was Steve Bannon, who has widely been labelled a racist and an anti-Semite.
The Trump transition team has denied Mr Bannon has extreme views, despite having overseen the incendiary website — Brietbart News, which runs headlines like: "Birth control makes women unattractive and crazy" and "Would you rather your child had feminism or cancer?"
On his farewell tour overseas, Mr Obama has been assuring world leaders of a seamless continuity of control and stability in the White House.
He has listened to his foreign friends and asked that they do not make immediate judgements of his successor.
"Give him a chance," he said.
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