Republican candidate Donald J. Trump has won the US presidential election, after arguably one the most controversial political campaigns in modern American history.
True to the statement he made at a rally in Delaware, Ohio last month, Donald Trump accepted the ‘favorable’ election results.
"I would like to promise and pledge to all of my voters and supporters and to all of the people of the United States that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election … if I win,” the Republican said.
Trump edged past Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton who had hoped to claim the accolade of becoming the first female US president.
Trump previously accused Clinton of using the “woman card” to a level he had never seen before.
"All I'm doing is bringing out the obvious, that without the woman card, Hillary would not even be a viable person to even run for a city council position," he said on NBC’s Today Show on April 28, 2016.
Despite being the underdog throughout the race, Trump never lost confidence in his ability to clinch the presidency, proclaiming at one point during the Republican primaries that he could "stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot people and I wouldn't lose voters.”
The Republican candidate sparked furor numerous times throughout the race for the White House, because of his comments both online and in the public forum.
It was reported that Trump’s aides went as far as to take control of the presidential hopeful’s social media accounts in the final days of the campaign. The presidential candidate gained huge notoriety through the use of social media, with his tweets sparking thousands of retweets and news headlines.
Trump aides take over his Twitter account in final stages of campaign – report
Here RT looks back at Trump’s most contentious tweets (some of which were later deleted), which sparked meltdowns and accusations of xenophobia and bigotry against the candidate.
‘Mexican criminals’
Trump launched his candidacy in Manhattan in June 16, 2015 on an anti-Mexican platform.
“When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best … they're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people,” he said.
The candidate later promised to build a wall along the US-Mexico border, and repeatedly reiterated his wall proposal online, blasting Mexicans as “criminals”.
Immigrants will not take over - ‘not on my watch’
Trump made his hardline stance against migrants clear right from the start of his campaign, when the then-presidential hopeful vowed to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants from the US.
His policy on immigration reform sparked accusations of hypocrisy due to his German heritage, his Slovenian-born wife, and use of foreign workers at his resorts.
"Blacks Killed By Blacks - 97%."
A retweet by Trump in November 2015 linked to an image of a dark-skinned man posing with a handgun and pointing to ‘USA Crime Statistics 2015’.
The racially charged crime data claimed the percentage of black people killed by white people was 2 percent while cases of the reverse amounted to 81 percent. It also said the number of blacks killed by blacks was 97 percent.
Previously Trump had blamed “blacks and hispanics” for the majority of violent crime in the US.
Meanwhile, in January 2016 Trump retweeted a user called ‘White Genocide’ whose account included anti-Arab comments and posts about violence allegedly committed by African-Americans. The tweet in question was a photoshopped image of his then-opponent Jeb Bush looking like a beggar in from of Trump Tower.
#America First
Trump repeatedly used the hashtag ‘America First’ in his tweets despite concerns raised that the slogan echoes anti-Semitic rhetoric dating back to World War II. ‘America First Committee’ was the name of an anti-interventionist organization that lobbied against US entry into the war. Critics accused the AFC of anti-Semitism and appeasement of Hitler. It was dissolved in December 1941, three days after the Pearl Harbor attack.
Trump calls for ban on Muslims entering the US
In December 2015, Trump issued a statement calling for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on”.
The "Muslim ban" was condemned widely, including by members of his own party.
The statement followed a somewhat bizarre comment made just days earlier when Trump appeared confused about the contribution Muslim athletes had made to US sport, and accused President Obama of profiling.
'Star of David’ Hillary Clinton tweet
A tweet posted by Trump last July regarding his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton resulted in a massive social media backlash prompting wide accusations of anti-Semitism.
The tweeted image depicted Hillary Clinton in front of a pile of money and a six-pointed star and the words: “Most corrupt candidate ever!”
Trump was bombarded with accusations of anti-Semitism following the post, which was deleted and replaced with an image substituting the star shape with a circle.