US President-elect, Trump, pays tribute to Hillary Clinton’s loyal service

Donald Trump marked his world-shaking victory over Hillary Clinton early Wednesday morning with a dramatic peace-making gesture, saying: “We owe her a debt of gratitude and I mean that very sincerely.”

After he sensationally won the White House race, Clinton phoned him at 2.30am to concede she had lost.

She made the private call shortly after sending her campaign chairman to give her supporters exactly the opposite message, that it was not over – a humiliating and bizarre end to a political career which had put her on the verge of being the first female president, Mail Online reports.

Instead a jubilant Trump headquarters erupted in cheers as the news broke.

Trump accepted the mantle of leadership with uncharacteristic humility nearly three hours after Election Day was over.

“Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division,” he began his victory speech just before 3am.  “I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans – and this is so important to me.

“For those who have chosen not to support me in the past – of which there were a few people – I’m reaching out to you for your guidance and your help, so we can work together and unify our great country.”

“I promise you that I will not let you down,’ he said.

He thanked his parents, saying they were ‘wonderful in every regard’. He thanked his sisters, his brothers, his wife and children ‘for putting up with all of those hours. … This political stuff was nasty and it was tough’. He thanked the US Secret Service.

And in a twist nearly as bizarre as the sum of Campaign 2016, he thanked Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who had called him minutes earlier to concede the presidential race after declining to do it from the stage of what was to be her own victory party.

Instead of bluster about her classified emails, Trump brought a gracious acknowledgement of her decades of government service.