American business magnate and television personality Donald Trump becomes the 45th President of the United States of America in a victory that provoked a global controversy, uncommon in the history of America. The win was dubbed as the ‘most shocking’ U.S. presidential election result by various news outlets worldwide.
Trump, a billionaire and Republican politician from New York City, won 306 electoral votes to outdistance his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton who received 232 electoral votes. Trump is expected to take office on 20 January 2017. He will be the fourth American President to win the Electoral College despite receiving fewer popular votes than his competitor; Clinton led the popular vote by more than two million votes.
The triumph of Trump came after his American patriotism rhetoric along with controversial speech that associates illegal immigration against Islamic terrorism was rampant throughout the election campaign since his candidacy announcement on 16 June 2015. The 70 years old tycoon managed to ascend the White House with campaign slogan “Make America Great Again”.
Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi said in her official congratulations letter to the President-elect that she is looking forward to working closely with ‘Trump’ to further strengthen the existing friendship, cooperation and partnership between the States and Myanmar .
Myanmar leader Suu Kyi is known to have good relationships with Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton, who admitted defeat to Trump at the election despite strong popularity and higher likelihood than the Republican to be voted for the presidency
Myanmar president Htin Kyaw also expressed in his official congratulations message to Trump that during Trump’s tenure as President of the United States, he firmly believe the existing cordial relations and cooperation between the two countries would be further consolidated and strengthened through joint efforts.
The election of Trump triggers some observer projections which expect a change in the existing American-Myanmar relations when the business mogul inaugurates his presidential duties. The speculation can be partly because of apparent dissimilarities in political stances between Myanmar’s current prodemocracy leaders and Trump, who ran for the election as a self-described conservative, especially in social and religious perspectives. The President-to-be emphasised American patriotism in his campaign.
Myanmar has been enjoying an unprecedented level of favourable relations with the U.S. following the NLDled government took power in March. Meanwhile, several nationalists in Myanmar embraced the news of Donald Trump coming to the U.S. presidency, hoping the new American president as the most influential political leader would share similar positions with them when it comes to nationalism.
