The New York billionaire has won more than the 270 electoral college votes he needed for victory, taking key swing states including Ohio, Florida and North Carolina.
Republicans have also kept control of both the Senate and the House - here's Lorna Shaddick with reaction from the candidate's home town, New York City.
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Recorded on location
It was here at Trump Tower in June last year that Donald Trump took the escalator ride that began his journey to the presidency, as he announced what many saw as an unlikely run for the highest office in the land. Now the man who built this block and many others here in New York and across America has stunned the world by defeating his heavily favoured rival and her gold plated CV with his own brassy campaign…
SOT Donald Trump, US President-Elect
I've just received a call from Secretary Clinton. She congratulated us, it's about us, on our victory, and I congratulated her and her family on a very, very hard-fought campaign. She fought very hard.
Among New Yorkers themselves this Wednesday, a mixed mood even as one of their own now holds the keys to the White House:
VOXES
At Mrs. Clinton's election night event on Tuesday, the mood turned from jubilation to tension to shock and despair… and it wasn't until Wednesday lunchtime that the former Secretary of State officially conceded.
SOT Hillary Clinton, 2016 Democratic Presidential nominee
Last night, I congratulated Donald Trump and offered to work with him on behalf of our country. I hope that he will be a successful president for all Americans. This is not the outcome we wanted or we worked so hard for, and I'm sorry that we did not win this election for the values we share in the vision we hold for our country.
President Obama said there would be an orderly handover of power in January:
SOT Barack Obama, US President
One thing you realize quickly in this job is that the presidency and the vice presidency is bigger than any of us. So I have instructed my team to follow the example that President Bush's team set eight years ago and work as hard as we can to make sure that this is a successful transition for the president elect.
But with the Republican party retaining control of the House of Representatives AND the Senate, experts say the 45th president is now likely to undo much of the legacy of the 44th. Donald Green is a professor of political science at Columbia University.
SOT - Professor Donald Green, Columbia University
He's never held elected office, he's never managed any kind of public affairs whatsoever, so I think he'll rely heavily on his advisers and I expect them to get immediately to work because for many of them this is a dream come true to have a majority in Congress and to have a very ambitious and in some ways audacious agenda is what they've dreamt of.
Recorded on location
The presidency will be Donald Trump's first elected office, and at the age of 70 he'll be the oldest ever first time leader. There are likely to be many bumps in the road ahead - not least because many in his own party have been vocal in their disapproval of him. But for now, they're rallying round, and looking ahead to the moment when their man moves from the penthouse in Trump Tower to the West Wing of the White House. Lorna Shaddick, New York.