Donald Trump wins: Read the President-elect’s victory speech in full

‘Ours was not a campaign but rather an incredible and great movement made up of millions of hardworking men and women who love their country and want a better, brighter future for themselves and for their family’

Donald Trump has been named as America’s President-elect, securing 279 electoral votes against Hilary Clinton’s 218. In the early hours of Wednesday morning Mr Trump appeared on stage in front of supporters and quipped, “Sorry to keep you waiting, complicated business,” as people in the crowd chanted “USA! USA!” before delivering his victory speech.

Here is Mr Trump’s speech in full:

“Thank you very much. I’ve just received a call from Secretary Clinton, she congratulated us on our victory and I congratulated her and her family on a very hard-fought campaign. She fought very hard. Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time and we owe her a major debt of gratitude to her service to our country, I mean that very sincerely.

“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 come 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. 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 that we can work together and unify our great country. As I’ve said from the beginning, ours was not a campaign but rather an incredible and great movement made up of millions of hardworking men and women who love their country and want a better, brighter future for themselves and for their family. It’s a movement comprised of Americans from all races, religions, backgrounds and beliefs, who want and expect our government to serve the people. And serve the people it will.

“Working together we will begin the urgent task of rebuilding our nation and renewing the American dream. I’ve spent my entire life in business, looking at the untapped potential in projects and in people all over the world. That is now what I want to do for our country. Tremendous potential. I’ve got to know our country so well, tremendous potential. It’s going to be a beautiful thing. Every single American will have the opportunity to realise his or her fullest potential. Forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals, we’re gonna rebuild our infrastructure which will become, by the way, second to none. And we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it. We will also finally take care of our great veterans who have been so loyal and I’ve gotten to know so many over this 18-month journey. The time I’ve spent with them has been among my greatest honours, our veterans are incredible people. We will embark upon a project of national growth and renewal, I will harness the creative talents of our people and we will call upon the best and brightest to leverage their tremendous talent for the benefit of all. It’s gonna happen.

“We have a great economic plan. We will double our growth and have the strongest economy anywhere in the world; at the same time we will get along with all other nations willing to get along with us. We’ll have great relationships, we expect to have great, great relationships. No dream is too big, no challenge is too great, nothing we want for our future is beyond our reach. America will no longer settle for anything less than the best. We must reclaim our country’s destiny and dream big and bold and daring. We have to do that. We’re going to dream of things for our country and beautiful things and successful things once again. I want to tell the world community that while we will always put America’s interests first, we will deal fairly with everyone. With everyone. All people and all other nations. We will seek common ground, not hostility, partnership and not conflict.

“And now I’d like to take this moment to thank some of the people who really helped me with this, what they are calling tonight, a very, very historic victory. First I want to thank my parents who I know are looking down on me right now. Great people. I’ve learned so much from them, they were wonderful in every regard, I had truly great parents. I also want to thank my sisters, Maryanne and Elizabeth, who are here with us tonight, where are they? They’re some place. They’re very shy, actually. And my brother Robert, my great friend. Where is Robert? Where is Robert? And they should all be on this stage but that’s OK. And also my late brother Fred, great guy. Fantastic family, I was very lucky. Great brothers, sisters, great, unbelievable parents. To Melania and Don, and Ivanka and Eric and Tiffany and Baron, I love you and I thank you and especially for putting up with all of those hours, this was tough. This political stuff is nasty and it’s tough. So I want to thank my family very much, thank you all, thank you all. And Lara, unbelievable job, Vanessa, thank you, thank you very much. What a great group. You’ve all given me such incredible support and I will tell you we have a large group of people, you know they kept saying it was a small staff, that’s not small, look at all of these people. And Kelly-Anne and Chris and Rudy and Steve and David, we have got tremendously talented people up here, I want to tell you, it’s been very, very special.

“I want to give a very special thanks to our former Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, he’s been unbelievable. He travelled with us and he went through meetings and Rudy never changes. Governor Chris Christie was unbelievable. The first man, first senator, the first major, major politician – and let me tell you, he is highly respected in Washington because he’s as smart as they get. Senator Jeff Sessions, where is Jeff? Great man, another great man, very tough competitor. He was not easy, he was not easy. [Applause from the crowd] Who is that? Is that the Mayor that showed up? Is that Rudy?

"Another great man who has been really a friend to me, but I’ll tell you, I got to know him as a competitor because he was one of those folks negotiating to go against the Democrats, Dr Ben Carson. Where is Ben? And by the way, Mike Huckabee is here someplace and he is fantastic. Where is Mike? General Mike Flynn and General Kellogg. We have over 200 generals and admirals who have endorsed our campaign, and they’re special people and it’s really an honour. We have 22 congressional Medal of Honor recipients, we have just tremendous people. A very special person who believed me, and I would read reports that I wasn’t getting along with him, I never had a bad second with him, he’s an unbelievable star – that’s right, how could you possibly guess? Let me tell you about Reince [Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC)]. And I’ve said this, I know it, Reince is a superstar. But I said, ‘They can’t call you a superstar, Reince, unless we win’. Because you can’t be called a superstar like [winning racehorse] Secretariat. If Secretariat came in second, Secretariat would not have that big, beautiful, bronze bust at the track at Belmont. But I want to tell you, Reince is really a star. And he is the hardest-working guy. Reince, come up here. Get over here, Reince.”

[Reince Priebus, taking to the stage: “Ladies and gentlemen, the next president of the United States, Donald Trump. Thank you. It’s been an honour. God bless. Thank God.”]

“Our partnership with the RNC was so important to the success and what we’ve done. So I’ve also got to say I’ve got to know some incredible people. The Secret Service people. They’re tough and they’re smart, and they’re sharp, and I don’t want to mess around with them, I can tell ya. And when I want to go and wave to a big group of people and they rip me down and put me back down in the seats… but they are fantastic people and I want to thank the Secret Service. And law enforcement to New York City, they’re here tonight, spectacular people, sometimes under-appreciated, unfortunately, but we appreciate them. We know what they go through.

“It’s been what they call an historic event, but to be really historic, we have to do a great job. And I promise you that I will not let you down, we will do a great job. We will do a great job. I look very much forward to being your president and hopefully at the end of two years, or three years, or four years, or maybe even eight years, you will say, so many of you worked so hard for us, but you will say that was something that you were very proud to do, and I can only say that while the campaign is over, our work on this movement is now really just beginning. We’re going to get to work immediately for the American people and we’re going to be doing a job, that hopefully you’ll be so proud of your president, you’ll be so proud.

“Again, it’s my honour, it’s been an amazing evening, it’s been an amazing two-year period, and I love this country. Thank you, thank you very much, thank you to Mike Pence.”