President-elect Donald Trump struck a surprisingly conciliatory tone in his victory speech early Wednesday morning in New York City.
Addressing an energized crowd at the Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan, Trump announced that his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, had called to concede the 2016 race.
"She congratulated us on our victory," Trump said, adding, "We owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country."
The tone stood in stark contrast to the dark rhetoric the New York businessman frequently employed on the campaign trail, where he entertained angry crowds that demanded she be imprisoned.
Trump himself had promised, if elected, to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the former secretary of state's private email server.
Shortly after assuming the awesome powers of the presidency, however, Trump opted to begin making mends.
"It is time for us to come together as one united people," he said. "It's time."
Trump appeared to move to calm horrified world financial markets, which were in free fall, by assuring leaders he would give them a fair shake at the bargaining table.
"I want to tell the world community … we will deal fairly with everyone," he said.
The Associated Press declared Trump the president-elect at 2:30 a.m. ET, shortly after the wire service placed Wisconsin in his column.
Trump's victory was one of the most stunning political upsets in history. Clinton was strongly favored to emerge as the victor on Tuesday night, with some analysts estimating Trump's chances of winning the election to be as low as 1%.
