There really was a silent Trump vote that the polls failed to pick up on. The nationwide polling average gave Clinton about a 3-point lead overall, and the state-by-state polls indicated she would win at least 300 electoral votes.
But the polls were as wrong as the pundits. Problems with the polls’ methodologies undoubtedly will be identified in the days and weeks ahead.
It seems equally reasonable to conclude that many Trump voters kept their intentions to themselves and refused to cooperate with the pollsters.
President-elect Donald Trump has disavowed the white nationalist movement which dubs itself the “alt-right” and which rallied around his candidacy, but vigorously defended his former campaign chairman and newly appointed White House chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, a man accused of fanning the flames of white supremacy.
“I don’t want to energize the group, and I disavow the group,” Trump said at a meeting with a group of New York Times journalists, in response to a question from the newspaper’s executive editor, Dean Baquet.
“And if they are energized I want to look into it and find out why,” Trump said.
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants with no experience in international affairs, has been chosen by President-elect Donald Trump to become the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a key forum for articulating and advancing U.S. foreign policy.
Haley, 44, a former state lawmaker who has been governor for the past six years, has not served in the federal government before, and her overseas work has been limited to international trade missions on behalf of her state. But Haley will be seen as a moderating voice among Trump’s national security picks and someone who will bring polished political and communications skills to the world body.
It is unusual for an incoming administration to name a U.N. ambassador so early, especially before the nominee for secretary of state is decided. Presidents Reagan, Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama did not name ambassadors until after their inaugurations. By naming her so quickly, Trump seems to be signaling that he considers the post an important podium for his foreign policy agenda.
Future First Lady Melania Trump and son Barron will not be moving to the White House after Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, The Post has learned.
The president-elect’s 46-year-old wife and their 10-year-old son are staying put at the family’s glitzy Trump Tower penthouse so that Barron can continue attending his Upper West Side private school, sources told The Post.
“Melania is extremely close to Barron, and they have become closer during the campaign,” said a source close to Trump’s transition team. “The campaign has been difficult for Barron, and she is really hoping to keep disruption to a minimum.”
The “big, beautiful powerful wall” that Donald Trump promised to build between the US and Mexico may turn out to be a comparatively humble fence — if Capitol Hill Republicans get their way.
Lawmakers are hatching a proposal to install a double-layer fence across 2,000 miles of the nation’s Southern border, instead of building the structure which Trump proposed during the presidential campaign, Reuters reported.
The fence is seen as both more cost effective and realistic, a congressional aide and an official from the Department of Homeland Security, told the news service.