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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Scott Bixby (now) and Claire Phipps, Tom McCarthy, Amber Jamieson and Matthew Weaver (earlier)

Donald Trump at the White House: Obama reports 'excellent conversation' – as it happened

Trump and Obama have ‘excellent conversation’ at White House

Today in Post-Campaign 2016

Are you adjusted to the New Normal yet?

President Barack Obama meets with President-elect Donald Trump.
President Barack Obama meets with President-elect Donald Trump. Photograph: Mathieson Sr./REX/Shutterstock
  • President-elect Donald Trump was accorded a chilly but deferential welcome at the White House this morning as the president-elect met with President Barack Obama for a 90-minute private meeting in the Oval Office. In the first stage of a 72-day transition process between Tuesday’s unexpected election victory and Trump’s inauguration on 20 January, Obama said the two men discussed “foreign and domestic policy” and how to ensure the handover of power went smoothly.
  • “I want to emphasize to you, Mr. President-elect, that we now are going to do everything we can to help you succeed because if you succeed, then the country succeeds,” Obama told his successor during a brief photo opportunity afterwards.
  • Jihadis have welcomed Trump’s surprise victory in the American presidential race, saying his election would sow greater division and expose what they described as the hatred and racism of the west towards Muslims. The endorsement of the election result by extreme Islamist figures highlighted fears that Trump’s divisive rhetoric and call to ban Muslims from entering the US could empower radicals who have argued that the west seeks Islam’s destruction and is at war with its adherents.
  • Tens of thousands of Americans held further protests and acts of dissent against the election after a wave of demonstrations across the US on Wednesday night in which dozens were arrested. Protesters began mobilizing in major cities for a third day after crowds had descended on Trump buildings in New York, Chicago and Washington into the early hours to rail against the shock election result.
  • There was a spate of claims of hate crimes in the US made on social media and to police today, in which the alleged victims said abusers had in some way cited Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election.Social media was rife with accounts of sometimes violent incidents of hate targeted at Muslims, Latinos and African Americans.
  • Samantha Bee blamed white people for ruining America:
  • And the Trump transition team put forward a few key team members:

Former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott told ABC Radio National that the US and UK elections and Brexit vote show that the non-politically correct don’t want to tell pollsters what they really think because they would face “excoriation.”

Tony Abbott: Trump fans weren’t upfront with pollsters over fear of abuse

President-elect Donald Trump has made his first swipe at the political media in his new role:

President-elect Donald Trump reports that he had “great chemistry” with president Barack Obama:

Given that Trump spent much of the mid-aughts attempting to prove that Obama was not born in the United States and was therefore constitutionally ineligible to serve as president, this is surprising.

Students at Cornell University held a “cry-in” after the election of president-elect Donald Trump, according to the Ivy League school’s student-run newspaper, where roughly 20 students met in the bleakness that is a November day in upstate New York to share tears, hugs and sorrows.

“I am concerned how this is validating the behavior of a lot of people,” a student sipping a cup of coffee said in the Cornell Daily Sun’s video, of the election.

“I’m quite terrified, honestly,” another student said. “It’s saying that people are really given into fear-mongering - they’re willing to put people down based on their identity just so that they would feel vindicated that they would be getting rid of ‘Crooked Hillary.’”

“I’d say the results are heartbreaking and such a slap in the face to so many of the populations that make up America,” a professor said. “I think it’s also an indication that there and many many people who are suffering and feel that haven’t been heard and they believe that Trump will answer their needs.”

Updated

Lawyers ask for Trump University trial to be delayed until next year

Donald Trump’s attorney told a federal judge on Thursday that he’s open to settlement talks in a class-action fraud lawsuit involving the president-elect and his now-defunct Trump University.

Attorney Daniel Petrocelli also asked during a hearing that the trial be delayed until early next year because Trump needs time to work on the transition to the presidency.

Real estate mogul and Reality TV star Donald Trump, listens as Michael Sexton introduces him at a news conference in New York.
Real estate mogul and Reality TV star Donald Trump, listens as Michael Sexton introduces him at a news conference in New York. Photograph: Bebeto Matthews/AP

The lawsuit alleging Trump University failed on its promise to teach success in real estate is currently set to begin 28 November in San Diego.

Petrocelli said he agreed to an offer by US district court Judge Gonzalo Curiel to have US district Judge Jeffrey Miller work with both sides on a possible settlement.

“I can tell you right now I’m all ears,” Petrocelli told Curiel.

Petrocelli said he planned to file a formal request for a delay by Monday.

Curiel didn’t say how he would rule but encouraged efforts to settle.

Petrocelli said it didn’t appear possible for Trump to attend the trial, and Curiel said he didn’t expect attendance by the president-elect.

“We’re in uncharted territory. We need a little bit of time,” Petrocelli said.

Earlier in the day Curiel, the Indiana-born jurist who was accused of bias by Trump over his Mexican heritage, tentatively denied a request to ban statements made by and about Trump during his campaign from being used at the trial.

The highly unusual petition would apply to Trump’s tweets, a video of Trump making sexually predatory comments about women, his tax history, revelations about his private charitable foundation and the public criticism of the judge.

Arizona senator Jeff Flake, speaking with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd about the impending Trump administration, told the Meet the Press host that although he opposed Trump during the campaign, “there are a lot of things that we agree on” and that Trump has, so far, been “gracious” to his vanquished and/or conquered opponents.

“I think all of us who have opposed him during the process of [have eaten] a huge helping of crow already,” said the Republican senator. “I didn’t think that he would get this far, I really didn’t.”

“When there are areas of disagreement and there may be some, there will be some, we’ll push back,” Flake continued. “But in the meantime, there are a lot of things that we agree on. I think he’s been gracious so far in terms of outreach and has done it right so far. And we’ll see where we go.”

Associated Press calls Arizona for Donald Trump

President-elect Donald Trump has officially won the traditionally red state of Arizona, two days after election night.

Heavy Latino turnout in the Grand Canyon State, as well as young people encouraged by a ballot initiative that would have regulated marijuana like alcohol, contributed to a massive groundswell of Democratic support, but apparently not enough for defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to win the state.

Former president Bill Clinton has made a quick phone call to president-elect Donald Trump, wishing the newly minted 45th president of the United States and his wife’s former political rival well.

“During the brief call, President Clinton congratulated Mr. Trump and wished him well,” an aide to Clinton told ABC’s Liz Kreutz.

Trump had long used Clinton’s personal peccadilloes as ammunition against the former secretary of state.

Bygones, right?

Because it’s 2016 and thus forbidden for a day to go past without an open letter appearing somewhere, here’s another one. This time it’s written by a fictional character, if that helps any: Leslie Knope, the relentlessly positive public servant from Park and Recreation, played by Amy Poehler. Upbeat, yes. Positive: not so much.

I do not accept it.

I acknowledge that Donald Trump is the president. I understand, intellectually, that he won the election. But I do not accept that our country has descended into the hatred-swirled slop pile that he lives in. I reject out of hand the notion that we have thrown up our hands and succumbed to racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and crypto-fascism.

I do not accept that. I reject that. I fight that. Today, and tomorrow, and every day until the next election, I reject and fight that story.

Anti-Trump protests continue

Several hundred protesters are taking to the streets for the second night running to protest against Trump’s victory, though not yet on the scale of the thousands seen on Wednesday evening.
In several places, high school and college students staged walk-out protests. At Baylor University in Texas, several dozen students have gathered:

In Denver, Colorado, protesters are beginning to gather for a march scheduled to begin soon:

Hundreds more gathered outside the Ohio statehouse in Columbus:

And in Louisville, Kentucky:

Around a thousand people have taken to the streets of Minneapolis, NBC is reporting, while students at the University of Minnesota also gathered for a protest:

In Philadelphia, more than 1,000 protesters gathered in Center City for a candlelit vigil, according to the Philadelphia Enquirer.

News that British prime minister Theresa May has finally had her phone call with Trump has certainly gladdened the hearts of some sections of the UK press:

Peter Walker reports from London:

In the call, Trump made reference to the famously close relationship between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher as a hopeful aim for their ties, a Downing Street source said.

Trump “alluded to their relationship as a way to underline that he was keen to have a good personal working relationship, too,” the source said.

A Downing Street statement added that the prime minister called “to congratulate him on his hard-fought election campaign and victory”, and confirmed May had been invited to visit the US “as soon as possible”.

“She noted President-elect Trump’s commitment in his acceptance speech to uniting people across America, which she said is a task we all need to focus on globally,” read one section of the statement, which is as close as May has come so far to referring to Trump’s controversial and divisive campaign.

The call came after concerns that the much-vaunted special relationship with the US might have suffered an early setback under Trump as he spoke to nine other world leaders in the 24 hours after his election win, without May getting a call.

Updated

Thanks to the magic synchronicity of Twitter, we can confirm that the vice-president-elect has spoken to the British foreign secretary, and that the “special relationship” remains … special:

Edward Snowden not worried about Putin turning him over to Trump

Edward Snowden has said he is unafraid of Russian president Vladimir Putin turning him over to the US as a favor to President-elect Donald Trump.

The national security whistleblower, speaking during a webchat from Russia this afternoon, where he has been stranded since disclosing revelations of widespread National Security Agency surveillance in 2013, said it would be “crazy to dismiss” the prospect of Trump striking a deal with Putin that leads to his extradition and trial.

Edward Snowden speaks via video link during a news conference in New York City.
Edward Snowden speaks via video link during a news conference in New York City. Photograph: Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters

But he added: “If I was worried about safety, if the security and the future of myself was all that I cared about, I would still be in Hawaii.”

Snowden told the webchat hosted by the Dutch privacy-focused search engine StartPage he was comfortable with and proud of the choices he had made.

“I think I did the right thing,” he said. “While I can’t predict what the future looks like, I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, I can be comfortable with the way I’ve lived to today.”

Trump, who has been complimentary about Putin and Russia in a manner that prompted accusations from his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton that he was a “puppet”, has in the past mused about having Snowden killed. Trump’s major national security ally, the retired general and former Defense Intelligence Agency chief Michael Flynn, oversaw a highly speculative DIA report that claimed Snowden took from the NSA a larger trove of documents than ever confirmed based on what Snowden could access as a contract systems administrator.

“Snowden is a spy who has caused great damage in the US. A spy in the old days, when our country was respected and strong, would be executed,” Trump tweeted in 2014.

All of that has prompted concern among Snowden’s supporters worldwide that the groundwork for an extradition is in place. But Snowden proclaimed himself unperturbed.

The first sighting of former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton after her concession to president-elect Donald Trump yesterday afternoon:

Updated

What will be the first actions Trump takes as president?

Dan Roberts takes a look a policies that could be implemented under President-elect Donald Trump.

What will be the first actions Trump takes as president?

Another White House transition-team pool report:

Hope Hicks has not responded to any additional emails with questions about the president-elect’s status, schedule or whereabouts since changing course and saying he was headed back to New York.

If there is any other information that comes in, I will send it immediately, but otherwise I won’t have any further pool reports today.

Thanks to you all for bearing with my failed attempts to get more out of the transition today.

Little on-the-nose, don’t you think?

Howard Dean to run for Democratic National Committee chairmanship

Former Vermont governor and onetime presidential candidate Howard Dean has announced via Twitter that he is running to reclaim his old position as chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Dean, who served as chair from 2005 to 2009, is running to replace interim chair Donna Brazile, who has served since July when Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz resigned in the wake of a Russian-sponsored hack of DNC servers that revealed high-level antipathy towards then-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders among the DNC’s leadership.

Video: President-elect Donald Trump appeared before the press to answer several questions this afternoon during a visit to Capitol Hill, and said that his first priorities once he is inaugurated will be controlling immigration, reforming healthcare and creating “big league jobs.”

(Or, possibly, “bigly jobs.” We’ve never been totally sure!)

Trump’s top priorities: immigration, healthcare and jobs

Trump was in Washington to meet President Obama and also held discussions with key Republican figures including Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.

The president-elect’s staff has provided no information, despite being asked, about his schedule or activities since leaving Capitol Hill.

Video: House speaker Paul Ryan meets with Trump in Washington

House speaker Paul Ryan meets with Trump in Washington – video

This is the most incredible political feat I have seen in my lifetime. Donald Trump heard a voice out in this country that no one else heard ... he connected in ways with people no one else did.

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has announced that former Ohio secretary of state Ken Blackwell will be in charge of handling domestic policy issues in relation to the upcoming Trump administration’s legislative and executive priorities in its first hundred days

Blackwell, who currently works as a senior fellow at the Family Research Council, a Christian lobbying organization that lobbies lawmakers against LGBT rights, abortion and pornography, first gained national attention in 2006, when he was running to serve as Ohio’s governor.

In an interview at the time, Blackwell declared that homosexuality was a “lifestyle” that “can be changed.

“I think homosexuality is a lifestyle, it’s a choice, and that lifestyle can be changed,” Blackwell told the Columbus Dispatch at the time. “I think it is a transgression against God’s law, God’s will.”

“The reality is, again,” Blackwell continued, “that I think we make choices all the time. And I think you make good choices and bad choices in terms of lifestyle. Our expectation is that one’s genetic makeup might make one more inclined to be an arsonist or might make one more inclined to be a kleptomaniac. Do I think that they can be changed? Yes.”

Trump himself has said that, while he does not support same-sex marriage rights, he does support LGBT rights. Vice president-elect Mike Pence, on the other hand, first emerged on the national stage after signing an expansive anti-LGBT measure into law, and once signed into law a bill that would send same-sex couples attempting to obtain marriage licenses to jail.

From the president-elect’s pool report:

Hope Hicks sends the following update about the president-elect’s plans for tonight: ‘Now heading to NYC’

That is the full extent of what she has told me.

She is not responding to questions about his schedule for the rest of the day

The “dishonest press” is getting its comeuppance from the new administration, it seems.

President Barack Obama should urgently seek to impose constitutional checks on the US president’s access to “the most awesome assassination machine ever known to man”, a former state department official in the Obama administration said today.

President Barack Obama meets with president-elect Donald Trump.
President Barack Obama meets with president-elect Donald Trump. Photograph: Mathieson Sr./REX/Shutterstock

Jeremy Shapiro disclosed the Obama team before the 2012 elections had considered imposing such constitutional checks on the US president’s ability to order killings fearing Obama was about to lose the presidential elections to the Republicans.

Speaking in London, Shapiro, a former special adviser an assistant secretary in the State Department, disclosed the Obama team in the State Department “in the run-up to the 2012 election the Obama thought might lose and there was some thinking - ‘Gee, we have created the most awesome assassination machine ever known to man whereby we can, with very little oversight, basically kill anyone in the world outside of America.’”

He added the Obama officials thought “We are using that responsibly because we are good people,” but it was not institutionalized. “When people looked at it they thought, ‘Christ this is scary, what if we give this to the Republicans?’”

He said the Obama team “started to have a process to institutionalize the process, but it did not get very institutionalized.”

Leslie Vinjamuri, senior lecturer at SOAS, added Obama should put all his remaining energy in his final weeks in the Oval Office to “do anything he can to to regulate, to create norms, institutionalize, create blocking mechanisms.”

The academics were discussing Trump’s approach to foreign policy and the degree he will delegate or take personal charge.

Shapiro warned: “in the last 15 years, power in foreign policy has centralized to an enormous extent within the presidency and Congress, and most of the institutions in foreign policy has become enormously supine in the face of what ever the [resident wants to do does in foreign policy. We have essentially by default almost given this to the president.”

Words for solace and strength

Cora Currier writes for the Guardian:

Audre Lorde once wrote that “poetry is not a luxury”, and right now it is a necessity. What kind of poetry can get us through a Donald Trump presidency? We’ll need satire and spitting vitriol. We’ll need rallying cries. We’ll need reminders of human dignity.

Each poet here has struggled with the relationship between poetry and action, with the question of poetry’s relevance in a time of crisis. Adrienne Rich said: “A poem can’t free us from the struggle for existence, but it can uncover desires and appetites buried under the accumulating emergencies of life.” These are words carefully chosen not for solace but for strength, poems that dip into the reservoirs of literature to find fuel for the day ahead. They are, to borrow from WH Auden’s famous poem September 1, 1939, “ironic points of light” that “flash out wherever the Just / exchange their messages”. Poems that serve as signals through the ages that good exists, and that someone is awake and listening.

Click through for:

Gwendolyn Brooks – Langston Hughes

Adrienne Rich – What Kind of Times Are These

Nayyirah Waheed – Some words build houses in your throat

Margaret Atwood – Men with the Heads of Eagles

Muriel Rukeyser – Poem

'A great campaign device'

Curiel to allow campaign remarks in Trump University trial

A US judge on Thursday tentatively rejected a bid by Donald Trump to keep a wide range of statements from the presidential campaign out of an upcoming fraud trial over his Trump University venture, Reuters reports:

The ruling came in advance of a pretrial hearing later on Thursday where lawyers for the president-elect will square off against students who claim they were they were lured by false promises to pay up to $35,000 to learn Trump’s real estate investing “secrets” from his “hand-picked” instructors.

Trump owned 92 percent of Trump University and had control over all major decisions, the students’ court papers say. The president-elect denies the allegations and has argued that he relied on others to manage the business.

Trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 28.

In the ruling on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel in San Diego said Trump’s lawyers can renew objections to specific campaign statements and evidence during trial. Trump’s attorneys had argued that jurors should not hear about statements Trump made during the campaign, including about Curiel himself.

Trump attacked the judge as biased against him. He claimed Curiel, who was born in Indiana but is of Mexican descent, could not be impartial because of Trump’s pledge to build a wall between the United States and Mexico.

Read the full piece here.

On Capitol Hill, Trump describes agenda: 'big league jobs'

Here’s footage of the impromptu press conference, via the Huffington Post:

Asked about his priorities, Trump mentions immigration, the border, health care and jobs, “big league jobs.”

Updated

Ohio governor John Kasich is praying for the success of Trump, whom he has come very close to openly despising.

Trump meets press, until Muslim ban comes up

Trump has emerged from the meeting and started an impromptu gaggle with reporters that ended when he was asked about his plan to ban Muslims, CNN reports:

Updated

Trump is still meeting with McConnell, the press pool reports:

The President-elect is still in his meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, which an aide said should last up to an hour.

The two walked by earlier, but have remained inside since. The Vice President-elect has already left the Capitol.

Updated

Trump, with Ryan: 'we're going to lower taxes'

Here’s a transcription via the Trump press pool of Trump’s meeting with speaker Paul Ryan:

Ryan repeatedly chided reporters for shouting questions --- including how the “wall is going to be paid for.”

Ryan:

Donald Trump had one of the most impressive victories we have ever seen and we’re going to turn that victory into progress for the American people, and we are now talking about how we are going to hit the ground running to get this country turned around and make America great again.”

Trump:

Speaker Ryan, thank you very much. We had a meeting, I met with president before, as you know. I think we are going to absolutely spectacular things for the American people and I look forward to starting --- quite frankly we can’t get started fast enough.”

[Inaudible] “… Whether it’s on healthcare or immigration so many different things. We’re going to lower taxes, so many different things we are going to be working on.”

“We had a very detailed meeting, and we’re going to lower taxes, as you know, health care we’re going to make it affordable. We are going to do a real job on healthcare [inaudible].

As he wrapped up, Trump said he had a “great meeting” with Ryan and then the Speaker led him out onto his balcony.

The Obamas’ dogs got one whiff of Trump and ambled elsewhere.

Trump will stay in DC for the night, spokeswoman Hope Hicks has informed the media pool. But no word on whether he’ll stay at his new hotel on Pennsylvania avenue.

Endorse.

From the piece:

And she [the heavy-construction worker] shared an anecdote that reflected how differently Trump’s comments had been received in some places than others. “I’m setting steel for this new gas plant…I’m operating a rough terrain forklift,” she wrote. “So today, I kept thinking about the debate and the audio was released … And I got underneath a load of steel and was moving it…I was laughing and laughing and one of the iron workers asked ‘what are u laughing at.’ I said ‘I grabbed that load right by the pussy’ and laughed some more…And said ‘when you’re an operator you can do that ya know’, laughed all fucking day.”

Just last week, I was back in Ohio, in the southeastern Appalachian corner. I was at a graduation ceremony for opiate addicts who had gone through a recovery program, and sitting with four women, all around 30, who were still in the program. Someone mentioned the election, and all four of them piped up that they were voting for the first time ever. For whom? I asked. They looked at me as if I had asked the dumbest question in the world. All four were for Trump.

The most of the loquacious of the group, Tiffany Chesser, said she was voting for him because her boyfriend worked at a General Electric light-bulb plant nearby that was seeing more of its production lines being moved to Mexico. She saw voting for Trump as a straightforward transaction to save his job. “If he loses that job we’re screwed — I’ll lose my house,” she said. “There used to be a full parking lot there — now you go by, there are just three trucks in the lot.”

Look who else is visiting the White House today! John Kasich, the Ohio governor who never gave Trump the time of day and voted for John McCain for president and whose state was then won by Trump by almost 9 points.

That’s Kasich there at left. Oh yes and also that’s the NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers. LeBron James, who campaigned a lot for Clinton, is in the White House today.

Updated

What he said.

Obamacare enrollments (or preliminary signups? it’s not clear) spiked after the election, the secretary of health and human services reports:

Now Trump and Pence and Melania Trump are meeting with senate majority leader Mitch McConnell on Capitol Hill.

McConnell said yesterday he expected to work with Trump on filling the supreme court vacancy, on tax reform, on Obamacare and more.

Developing...

Updated

There’s the Martin Luther King Jr bust Barack Obama moved into the Oval Office upon becoming president.

Obama was criticized for moving a bust of Winston Churchill outside the Oval to make room for MLK. There are “only so many tables where you can put busts, otherwise it starts looking a little cluttered,” Obama said.

Anyone think the MLK Jr bust will stay there after January?

Paul Ryan can see Donald Trump’s hotel from his house the Capitol balcony.

That’s vice-president-elect Mike Pence and Melania Trump with them of course.

The Trump-Ryan meeting

Some initial footage, and the requisite “this meeting was wonderful” quote from Ryan. Developing...

Michelle Obama hosts Melania Trump for tea

Josh Earnest describes the Michelle Obama - Melania Trump meeting. They had tea, admired a balcony view and talked about raising kids in the White House.

How different than what would have come to pass had Clinton won.

Earnest:

The first lady hosted Mrs Trump in the private residence... for some tea and a tour... part of that tour included stepping out onto the Truman balcony... you’ve heard the president and Mrs Obama describe the quality of time that they’ve spent on the Truman balcony.... there was also an opportunity for the two women to walk through the state floor of the White House...

They also had a discussion about raising kids at the White House. The first lady’s two daughters spent their formative years here at the White House... After their tour concluded, the first lady and Mrs Trump walked over to the Oval Office and the two couples had a chance to speak.

Obama on Monday called Trump “temperamentally unfit” and “uniquely unqualified.”

“The president’s views haven’t changed,” the press secretary says. But it’s time for a successful transition.

“The president’s plan to take a long vacation after he leaves office have not changed.” – Josh Earnest

Obama appreciated how George W Bush gave him space after Obama took office, giving him “some running room,” Earnest says. “President Obama admired that.”

Sanders warns Trump not to stoke bigotry

He doesn’t sound like he’s kidding:

After dismissing the question multiple times, Earnest allows that yes, Obama may continue to think that Trump is unqualified to be president:

Further to our earlier post about hate incidents since the election, the Guardians’ Luis Echegaray flags a disturbing incident at Elon University in North Carolina:

Here’s a further collection of such incidents:

Earnest is asked about the anti-Trump protests across the country on Wednesday evening.

Reply:

We’ve got a carefully, constitutionally protected right to free speech... it is a right that should be exercised without violence. There are people disappointed in the outcome... but it’s important for us to remember that we’re Democrats and Republicans but we’re Americans and patriots first.

Read further:

Earnest is asked whether Obama still considers Trump unfit to be president.

Reply:

The two men did not re-litigate their differences in the Oval Office. We’re on to the next phase now.

Trump and Ryan do lunch

Via the house speaker’s spokesperson:

The President-elect, Mrs. Trump, Vice President-elect, and the Speaker are having lunch and discussing the transition. The Speaker has also invited President-elect Trump to the Capitol after their meeting to show him where he’ll be sworn in on Inauguration Day.

Press secretary Josh Earnest is talking about the big meeting.

He says he met Jared Kushner and Hope Hicks. “I had the opportunity to meet with her briefly – to meet her, I should say.”

On the Obama-Trump meeting, Earnest has this to say:

The meeting might have been a little less awkward than some might have expected.

Trump referred in the Oval to some “high-flying assets” the president had told him about, a reporter notes. What the heck was that about?

Earnest refers the question to team Trump.

Here’s some added color from inside the Oval office, via the Trump media pool, which Trump ditched again upon leaving the White House for his meeting with Paul Ryan:

The president kept saying, “tell me when you’re ready” to reporters, as he waited to make a statement. The president-elect looked around the room, and at the floor, his hands tented below him. The only senior aide in the room spotted in the room from the White House was press secretary Josh Earnest. Trump aides Hope Hicks and Jared Kushner, who had been waiting in the Cabinet room until the meeting concluded, were in place as well. Kushner took iPhone photos as they spoke.

Obama looked straight at Trump for the full statement, his hands clasped. He nodded at the end.

Both men ignored shouted questions, including “Mr. President, do you still think he is a threat to the republic?”

Obama explained to Trump with a joke that the reporters always ask questions and they need to be shooed out, as he motioned with his hand. He singled out one aide who was wrangling the press, saying, “she’s small, but she’s tough.” Trump said “she’s doing a very good job.”

Trump and Obama.
Trump and Obama. Photograph: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

Updated

Obama and Trump White House meeting - full transcript of their remarks to press

Barack Obama: I just had the opportunity to have an excellent conversation with President-elect Trump. It was wide-ranging. We talked about some of the organizational issues in setting up the White House. We talked about foreign policy, we talked about domestic policy. And as I said last night, my number one priority in the coming two months is to try to facilitate a transition that ensures our president elect is successful. And I have been very encouraged by the I think interest in president elect Trump’s wanting to work with my team around many of the issues that this great country faces and I believe that it is important for all of us regardless of party and regardless of political preferences to now come together, work together, to deal with the many challenges that we face. And in the meantime Michelle has had a chance to greet the incoming first lady and we had an excellent conversation with her as well. And we want to make sure they feel welcome as they prepare to make this transition. And most of all I want to emphasize to you, Mr President Elect, that we now are gonna want to do everything we can to help you succeed because if you succeed then the country succeeds. Please [indicates Trump should speak].

Trump is scheduled to the Republican leadership in Congress later today on Capitol Hill.
Trump is scheduled to the Republican leadership in Congress later today on Capitol Hill. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images

Donald Trump: Well, thank you very much President Obama. This was a meeting that was going to last for maybe 10 or 15 minutes and we were just going to get to know each other. We had never met each other. I have great respect- the meeting lasted for almost an hour and a half, and it could have, as far as I’m concerned, it could have gone on for a lot longer. We really, we discussed a lot of different situations, some wonderful and some difficulties. I very much look forward to dealing with the president in the future, including counsel. He’s explained some of the difficulties, some of the high flying assets and some of the really great things that have been achieved. So Mr President, it was a great honor being with you and I look forward to being with you many, many more times in the future.

Obama: Thank you everybody – we are not going to be taking any questions. [To Trump:] Always a good rule: don’t answer any questions when they just start yelling.

Updated

Full remarks video: Obama and Trump

Here’s a video of Obama and Trump’s full remarks following their Oval Office meeting:

Trump and Obama have ‘excellent conversation’ at White House

Updated

Remember Aaron Schock, the former Illinois congressman whose sketchy use of his congressional allowance and campaign funds was exposed after a reporter spoke with the interior decorator of his office who said she’d been inspired by Downton Abbey?

He’s been indicted.

February 2015, speaking to reporters in Peoria, Illinois. Schock spent taxpayer and campaign funds on private airplanes to fly him around the country on aircraft owned by some of his key donors, The Associated Press found.
February 2015, speaking to reporters in Peoria, Illinois. Schock spent taxpayer and campaign funds on private airplanes to fly him around the country on aircraft owned by some of his key donors, The Associated Press found. Photograph: Seth Perlman/AP

Trump en route to meetings with GOP leadership

Now to hatch plans with his Republican colleagues for next steps.

Trump is in a motorcade en route to meet with House speaker Paul Ryan at the Capitol Hill Club and majority leader Mitch McConnell at Capitol Hill.

Here’s a media pool transcription of president Obama’s remarks:

We talked about some of organizational issues in setting up the White House. We talked about foreign policy. We talked about domestic policy. As I sat last night, my number one in the next coming two months is to try to facilitate a transition that ensures our President-elect is successful and I have been very encouraged by the interest by the President-elect Trump’s wanting to work with my team around many of the issues that this great country faces. I believe that it is important for all regardless of party and regardless of political preferences to now come together, work together to deal with the many challenges we face.

Updated

More video and photos of the meeting:

Trump expresses hope for future 'dealing' with Obama

An amicable – if a bit stiff, and did we notice strained on the president’s part? – appearance before the cameras for the two men.

Obama says “I have been very encouraged by an interest in president-elect Trump’s wanting to work with my team around many of the issues that the country faces... it is important for all of us ... to now come together, work together...

Michelle’s had the chance to greet the incoming first lady, and we’ve had an excellent conversation and want to make sure they feel welcome...

We now are gonna want to do everything we can because if you succeed the country succeeds.

Trump:

We had never met.. The meeting was supposed to last 10 minutes... I have great respect... it went on for an hour-and-a-half and as far as I’m concerned it could have gone on longer... we really we discussed a lot of different situations, some wonderful and some difficulties. I very much look forward to dealing with the president in the future, including counsel.

Mr president, was a great honor being with you and I look forward to being with you many many more times in the future.

According to reports and photos shown to me by a friend in the room, a grinning Trump patted Obama on the back as they got up to leave, though there was only one handshake between the two men in front of the brief photo opportunity.

Photo: Trump and Obama meet

You don’t see that expression on Obama’s face often.

Thursday.
Thursday. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Donald Trump and Barack Obama meet at the White House
Donald Trump and Barack Obama meet at the White House Photograph: MSNBC

Trump boasts of length of meeting with Obama

Obama said the number one priority was to ensure a smooth transition, so Trump could be a successful president.

“If he succeeds, the country succeeds,” Obama said.

Trump said he had “respect for the president” and said they talked about some wonderful things and some difficult things.

Asked if he would seek the advice of the president, Trump said Obama was a “very fine man.”

Trump also boasted of how long their meeting had been. He said it was scheduled for ten minutes but lasted for an hour and a half, and could have gone on much longer.

Obama describes 'excellent conversation' with Trump

Obama and Trump talked about foreign and domestic policy according to initial pool chatter in the press room.

More to come....

In short remarks, the president said the two had an “excellent conversation.”

The Obamas canceled a photo-op of the current and future first couples outside the south entrance of the White House, the Wall Street Journal reports.

But we’re about to get photos from inside the Oval office.

The media pool is going into the Oval Office now. That suggests a 90-minute meeting.

POTUS and PEOTUS were seated in the high-backed armchairs at the end of the room, as is typical for when the President speaks to world leaders.

Both men spoke briefly. Remarks to come...

At least we’ll have access to the vice president? That’s pretty important, right?

Still meeting. President Barack Obama and president-elect Donald Trump have been meeting for about 90 minutes now.

What are they talking about do you think? Is Obama lecturing Trump about keeping a cool head? Is Trump lecturing Obama about leadership? Are they comparing notes on what it feels like to give electrifying speeches to thousands of people across the country? Is Obama telling Trump about how much his hate speech wounds individual Americans and the country and world at large? Is he lecturing Trump on the constitution? Is Trump asking to “try out that chair”? Are they talking about family, about Vladimir Putin, about government surveillance, about filling the role of mourner-in-chief after mass shootings, about protocol, about climate change?

Trump’s traveling press pool continues to track Kushner and McDonough.

Kushner, the scion of a New Jersey real estate empire that dwarfs Trump’s, was a key adviser to his father-in-law throughout the campaign. It’s unclear what role he would have in the White House.

The pool report:

McDonough and Kushner walked back from the lawn and across the Rose Garden at 12:07. McDonough led him up the colonnade, followed by the same group of aides who’d left them on their own for the walk. They entered the White House, looked up briefly when a reporter called out “Denis!” but did not respond.

Trump and Obama are still meeting. What are they talking about? Obamacare?

The walk.
The walk. Photograph: White House Press Pool

Updated

Here’s a photo of Jared Kushner and White House chief of staff Denis McDonough:

Jared Kushner being led by White House chief of staff Denis McDonough on a walk along the South Lawn as Obama and Trump meet in the Oval Office.
Jared Kushner being led by White House chief of staff Denis McDonough on a walk along the South Lawn as Obama and Trump meet in the Oval Office. Photograph: White House Press Pool

Trump to meet with Ryan, McConnell

Following his meeting with Obama today, president-elect Trump will meet with House speaker Paul Ryan at the Capitol Hill Club and majority leader Mitch McConnell at Capitol Hill.

Trump has been hard on Ryan, attacking him repeatedly during the campaign as a weak leader. Ryan canceled a plan campaign appearance with Trump after the emergence of hot-mic video in which Trump described grabbing women’s genitals without their consent.

Members of Trump’s staff including campaign chairman Stephen Bannon have called for Ryan’s head and it’s possible the president-elect will seek to torpedo Ryan’s reelection as House speaker.

But on Wednesday, Ryan put a good face on the relationship, saying he had spoken with Trump twice and was eager to work with him and calling Trump’s election good for the country. McConnell voiced a similar view.

Three Republican men in control of the legislative and executive branches.

Conway says she's been offered administration post

Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway has been offered a White House job, she tweets.

Conway is the first woman ever to have run a successful presidential campaign. (Donna Brazile was Al Gore’s campaign manager in 2000; he lost?)

Updated

What are they doing in there?

Dan Roberts reports from the White House:

The press pool still has not gone into the Oval Office, which suggests the meeting is going on longer than some of us expected.

From the media pool assigned to Trump which Trump has ditched, a sighting of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough.

White House chief of staff Denis McDonough was just spotted leading Jared Kushner and other Trump aides, including Dan Scavino, across the back edge of the Rose Garden. McDonough led Kushner on a walk down the South Lawn as the others dispersed.

Reminds us of the time in 2006 that Kushner and Peter Kaplan went to that Yankees game. Seemed high-stakes at the time; Kushner had just purchased the New York Observer, where Kaplan was editor, which nobody wanted to see fail. Kaplan died of cancer in 2013. Kushner’s now getting the keys to the White House.

Here’s an interesting phenomenon. Trump supporters coming out of the woodwork post-election.

Maybe the sign instead of being an expression of support for Trump in particular is a general expression of patriotic hope for a steady future for the country?

Hm. But wouldn’t an American flag work better in that case?

(h/t @loisbeckett)

The press pool is going in now, in the first sign that the Obama-Trump meeting is coming close to an end. The pool includes members of the separate press pool which has been covering Trump but has been barred for being with him since the election.

In Las Vegas on Sunday.
In Las Vegas on Sunday. Photograph: The Photo Ac/REX/Shutterstock

White House staffers and others on the steps of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016, as they wait for the arrival of President-elect Donald Trump.
White House staffers and others on the steps of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016, as they wait for the arrival of President-elect Donald Trump. Photograph: Susan Walsh/AP
People gather outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016, as they wait for the arrival of President-elect Donald Trump.
People gather outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016, as they wait for the arrival of President-elect Donald Trump. Photograph: Susan Walsh/AP

Press on the move inside White House

The press pool has just been informed that in 10 minutes they will be going back to prepare for a “spray”.

What will happen is they will stand in a West Wing corridor, for what I guess will be 15-20 minutes, while they wait for the private Obama-Trump meeting to finish.

Then they will be ushered inside the Oval Office to take pictures of Trump and Obama and record what we expect to be brief remarks from each.

It is possible, though unlikely, that Trump may come out to another “stake-out” location outside the front of the West Wing afterwards to make separate remarks to the wider press corps.

More likely he will depart, as he arrived, out of public sight.

British PM office supplies notes on conversation with Trump

A spokesperson for British prime minister Theresa May releases this description of a conversation between May and Trump:

The Prime Minister spoke to US President-elect Donald Trump earlier today to congratulate him on his hard-fought election campaign and victory. The President-elect said he very much looked forward to working with the Prime Minister and congratulated her on her recent appointment.

The Prime Minister and President-elect Trump agreed that the US-UK relationship was very important and very special, and that building on this would be a priority for them both. President-elect Trump set out his close and personal connections with, and warmth for, the UK. He said he was confident that the special relationship would go from strength to strength.

Trump’s staff has not released a description of the call. That’s unusual. Presidents typically release their own versions of such communications so they can frame the conversation their way instead of conceding to the foreign government’s framing.

Trump’s staff is not informing the media of top-level – official now, aren’t they? – conversations Trump is having with foreign leaders, among who knows what other conversations.

Updated

He’s here, reports Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts from the White House:

Police are investigating the burning of a gay pride flag outside a home in Rochester, NY, as a potential hate crime, TWC news reports:

Ventura said he connects this incident and another flag burning in the same neighborhood to the election. To help deal with what had happened, he joined dozens of others Wednesday night at the Gay Alliance LGBTQ Resource Center, where many were also feeling distressed about the election outcome.

Reports of racist attacks and other hate-crime behavior have surfaced again and again since the election. Here’s one against Muslim-Americans in San Diego Wednesday and here is one against a Mexican restaurant in Boston.

As Trump meets Obama, Michelle Obama is to take Melania Trump on a tour of the White House and the east wing where the family lives.

This afternoon, vice president Joe Biden is to meet with vice-president-elect Mike Pence, a longtime legislator relatively well-known in Washington.

There is not expected to be any live coverage of the Trump Obama meeting, but here is a live stream that may capture Trump’s arrival:

Trump ditched his press pool this morning, in continuance of his late-campaign practice. Spokeswoman Hope Hicks told Trump’s pool that the White House would provide pool coverage of today’s meeting.

The White House press pool of course is at the White House, not with Trump. So that doesn’t make any sense.

The protective press pool attached to the president, when it works, increases the access of the public to the presidency and the White House. The press pool describes the daily movements of the president and remarks variations in those, introduces the public to the people and conversations in the president’s orbit, and provides coverage in case of unforeseen events extending to an emergency.

Insofar as the media is a tool for the public to pry open and look inside the government – and we are keenly aware that a lot of people these days think “insofar” is “not very far” – the press pool is a tool for the larger media to keep an eye on the president.

Trump’s ditching it, for now.

Take him to our leader.

Canada 'prepared to talk' on Nafta

The Canadian government has said it is open to renegotiating Nafta – the North American free-trade agreement, routinely described by Donald Trump on the campaign trail as the “worst deal in history” – in a move that extends an olive branch to the incoming US administration.

[Trump also described the Iran nuclear deal and the Trans-Pacific partnership as the worst deals in history.]

The Guardian’s Ashifa Kassam reports from Toronto:

David MacNaughton, Canada’s ambassador to Washington, said on Wednesday the federal government was prepared to revisit the 1994 pact. “I think any agreement can be improved on,” he told reporters.

“If they want to have a discussion about improving Nafta, then we are ready to come to the table to try to put before the new administration anything that will benefit both Canada and the United States and obviously Mexico also,” said MacNaughton. “So we are prepared to talk.”

Throughout the American election campaign, Trump vowed to renegotiate Nafta in order to secure a better deal for American workers. If this proved impossible, Trump said he would withdraw the US from the agreement.

Doing so could wreak havoc on the Canadian economy, which in 2015 sent 77% of its exports to the United States. MacNaughton declined to offer details on what Canada would seek from the negotiations, save for noting that free trade on lumber, which has long ranked as an irritant between the two countries, would be among Canada’s demands.

His remarks came hours before Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, spoke to Trump to congratulate him on his win and invite him to visit Canada.

Trump lands in DC

The president-elect is on the ground in Washington. No protesters yet at the White House in anticipation of Trump’s visit.

Amnesty International is launching a billboard in Times Square today asking people to to post selfies in support of refugees.

The billboard, by Amnesty International and media platform The Drum, hopes to challenge racism and xenophobia around refugees. The relevance of the billboard launching the same week that Donald Trump, who promises to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants and tighten screening around Syrian refugees, didn’t go unnoticed.

From the press release:

Drum founder Gordon Young, who will be in Times Square to celebrate the billboard going live, today offered an open invitation to Donald Trump to attend the unveiling and show his support, “Congratulations to President-Elect Donald Trump. Now that he has succeeded, it is time to demonstrate how the responsibility of office can change campaigning rhetoric into real leadership. We invite him to extend an olive branch to refugees - Mexican or other”

Every media organization is publishing its version of “how Trump won,” and this snippet from Time magazine is particularly interesting, looking at Trump voters in Pennsylvania:

Chris Reilly, a commissioner in York County, Pennsylvania, has lived in the heavily Republican area north of Baltimore for 28 years. On the day in September after Mike Pence spoke to some 800 folks in downtown York, Reilly scanned a panoramic picture of the crowd in the local paper and had a shock. “I recognized one face,” he said. That’s when the party stalwart knew something was going on.

Then, on a recent Friday, Reilly got word that the county had received 9,000 absentee-ballot applications in a single day. It had to mail them out by Monday but had no money for extra help. So Reilly turned up at the election office on Saturday to stuff the applications into envelopes himself. As he did, he noticed something surprising. The applications were running 10 to 1 male. And when he peeked at the employment lines, he saw a pattern. “Dockworker. Forklift operator. Roofer,” Reilly recalled. “Grouter. Warehouse stocker. These people had probably never voted before. They were coming out of nowhere.”

Hillary Clinton is still leading in the popular vote, with 59,923,033 votes (47.7%) to Donald Trump’s 59,692,978.

That’s a pretty evenly split country, with just over 230,000 votes.

FAA puts Trump Tower in no-fly zone

A door man opens the front door of Trump Tower.
A door man opens the front door of Trump Tower. Photograph: Jason Szenes/EPA

The Federal Aviation Authority has listed Trump Tower in Midtown, home of Donald Trump, wife Melania and son Barron, in the no-fly zone.

The FAA had placed “temporary flight restrictions for VIP Movement” on the area for election night but has now extended it indefinitely after Trump’s win.

The area of Trump Tower is now, as New York magazine pointed out, a national-security site:

The agency issued an administrative directive called a “Notice to Airmen” banning pilots from flying within two nautical miles of the geographical point located at 40º45’54” north, 73º58’25” west — that being the southeastern corner of Central Park, four blocks north of Trump Tower.

Updated

As we prepare for President Obama to welcome President-elect Trump to the White House, let’s just enjoy this photo doing the rounds of social media of Obama’s staff listening to their boss make a gracious speech about Trump’s win.

White House staff members listen to US President Barack Obama speak about Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton for the presidency in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 09 November 2016.
White House staff members listen to US President Barack Obama speak about Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton for the presidency in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 09 November 2016. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

So perhaps Rudy Guiliani, former NYC mayor and one of Trump’s most ardent surrogates, won’t be Attorney General in the Trump administration.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s name is also being thrown around as possible AG contender.

Russia confirms discussions with Trump campaign during election

From the Guardian’s Moscow correspondent...

Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov has said Moscow’s emissaries were in touch with people around the Trump campaign during the election process, despite repeated denials from the Trump campaign that such links existed.

Ryabkov told Interfax they’ve reached out to Trump since his election win.

“We are doing this and we have been doing so during the election campaign. Obviously, we know most of the people from his entourage. Those people have always been in the limelight in the United States and have occupied high-ranking positions,” he said.

“I cannot say that all of them but quite a few have been staying in touch with Russian representatives. We have just begun to consider ways of building dialogue with the future Donald Trump administration and channels we will be using for those purposes,” Ryabkov said.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed to Bloomberg that Russian embassy staff met with Trump associates during the campaign, and said people around the Clinton campaign had rejected such contacts.

It is not particularly surprising that Russian representatives would have made overtures to Trump during the campaign; it is standard practice in all election campaigns.

It is interesting that Ryabkov has chosen to say this publicly, however, given the role alleged Russian interference played in the campaign and given Trump’s campaign publicly denied such contacts.

Vice-president Joe Biden will meet with VP-elect Mike Pence at the White House at 2.45pm today.

Thousands of anti-Trump protesters take to the streets overnight

Thousands of Americans took to the streets in protest of the election of Donald Trump last night, chanting “not my president” and shutting down roadways.

Cities including Los Angeles, New York, Washington DC and Philadelphia all saw large protest turnout.

A protester confronts police as protesters shut down the 101 Freeway, following a rally to protest President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory in Los Angeles, California, late on November 9, 2016.
A protester confronts police as protesters shut down the 101 Freeway, following a rally against President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory in Los Angeles, California. Photograph: Ringo Chiu/AFP/Getty Images
Demonstrators gather to protest a day after President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, at a rally outside Los Angeles City Hall in Los Angeles, California.
Demonstrators gather to protest a day after President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, at a rally outside Los Angeles City Hall in Los Angeles, California. Photograph: Ringo Chiu/AFP/Getty Images

Reporters Sam Levin in San Francisco, Zach Stafford in Chicago and Scott Bixby in New York covered last night’s protests.

As night fell in midtown Manhattan, people took over Sixth Avenue and marched by Trump Tower, carrying signs that read “Not my president”, “She got more votes” and “Hands off my pussy”, a reference to a leaked recording where Trump bragged that he could sexually assault women because of his fame. A number of arrests were made.

Protesters who had marched all the way from Union Square – some 35 blocks downtown – continued past Trump Tower, with a crowd congregating in front of the president-elect’s building.

“Fuck your tower! Fuck your wall!” people chanted at Trump Tower’s brass-escutcheoned facade, as scores of NYPD officers manned barricades, behind which stood eight department of sanitation trucks filled with dirt.

Read the rest of their coverage here.

Were you at anti-Trump rallies last night? Tell us in the comments about your experience - and tweet photos and thoughts to me at @ambiej.

Madeleine Albright
Madeleine Albright Photograph: Larry Marano/REX/Shutterstock

Former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright has warned Trump against American isolationism, telling him the US must play its part in the Nato alliance.

“Nato is obviously key. We are responsible for each other, a two-way street,” Albright told the Guardian in an interview on Wednesday.

Trump alarmed many in July when, at the Republican national convention where he accepted his party’s nomination, he implied that the US might not protect other members of Nato if they were not contributing enough to the military costs, and hinted he could withdraw US forces from around the world. A cornerstone of Nato’s strength, and global security, is the pact that an attack on one member is an attack on all.

“The US must be involved abroad. If we are not engaged, then the system doesn’t work at all, or, even, a new system cannot be created,” she said.

Many Ukrainians feel they were let down in the level of support they received from the west for fighting Russia-backed separatists in the east of the country, but a Donald Trump presidency brings a whole new level of fear, writes Shaun Walker.

What really terrifies Kiev is the fact that Trump has hinted he could be amenable to the sort of Great Power politics that Putin enjoys: man-to-man summitry where geopolitical deals are struck. G

Given the importance of Ukraine to Putin’s plans, he would be likely to demand the country is recognised as one where Russia has “special interests”. In Putin’s dream world and Kiev’s nightmare, the recognition of annexed Crimea as part of Russia could even be up for discussion.

A somewhat nervous statement was issued by Ukrainian president Poroshenko, congratulating Trump and noting he had been assured by the US ambassador that the incoming Trump administration “would remain a reliable partner in the struggle for democracy”.

In reality, nobody knows what Trump’s position on Russia and Ukraine will be, including the US ambassador. As on so many policy positions, Trump has made contradictory statements, at times suggesting more should have been done to support Ukraine against Russia while at other times suggesting Crimea should be part of Russia.

Jean-Claude Juncker
Jean-Claude Juncker Photograph: Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has called for clarity from on issues in which Trump’s campaign remarks have rattled Europe, including s global trade, climate policy and future relations with Nato.

“We would like to know how things will proceed with global trade policy,” Juncker said at a business event in Berlin, according to Reuters.

“We would like to know what intentions he has regarding the (Nato) alliance. We must know what climate policies he intends to pursue. This must be cleared up in the next few months.”

Juncker said he did not expect the trade deal between the United States and the European Union, currently being negotiated, to be finalised this year as previously planned.

“The trade deal with the United States, I do not view that as something that would happen in the next two years,” he said.

A Russian diplomat says Moscow had contacts with the Trump campaign ahead of the election, AP reports.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was quoted as telling the Interfax news agency that “there were contacts” with influential people in Trump’s circle. “I don’t say that all of them, but a whole array of them, supported contacts with Russian representatives.”

The report did not elaborate.

Russia was openly accused of interfering in favour of Trump during the campaign. The Obama administration claimed Russian authorities hacked damaging Democratic party emails that were then leaked to WikiLeaks.

Russian president Vladimir Putin denied the claims. After Trump’s election he was quick to call for a new era of “fully fledged relations” between Washington and Moscow.

Updated

The American Civil Liberties Union is trying to tap into anxiety about civil liberties under Trump to raise some cash.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has spoken of his determination to dismantle Obama’s flagship health insurance policy as soon as possible.

After speaking to Trump, McConnell said: “It’s pretty high on our agenda, as you know. I would be shocked if we didn’t move forward and keep our commitment to the American people.”

During the campaign Trump promised to immediately repeal Obamacare. But some commentators predict he may get cold feet because such a move would leave millions of Americans without health cover, and he has no alternative to help them.

Pundits on The Weeds, Vox’s policy podcast, suggested he may be deploy a constantly extended sunset clause to keep Obamacare going.

Meanwhile, health campaigners have pledged to wage “total war” in defence of Obamacare, according to Politico.

In the UK chancellor Philip Hammond, is anxious that Trump’s protectionism could damage Britain.

Hammond was asked by the BBC if he thought free trade deals needed to be fundamentally rethought, as Trump suggests. He suggested he didn’t:

We believe that free trade and open markets are good for prosperity, good for the protection of jobs in this economy. But we do also recognise the concerns that there are around dumping and unfair practices, and it’s about getting the right balance in the global trading system so that we can have the benefits of open markets, while being properly and appropriately protected from unfair practices.

Andrew Sparrow is following this and all the other Trump fallout in British politics at Politics Live.

It was white women who pushed Trump to victory, according to exit poll data.

Rejecting the candidate who had aimed to be America’s first female president, 53% of white women voted for Trump, according to CNN exit polls.

White women without a college degree supported Trump over Hillary Clinton by nearly a two to one margin. White women with a college degree were more evenly divided, with 45% supporting Trump, compared with 51% supporting Clinton.

Women of color, in contrast, voted overwhelmingly for Clinton: 94% of black women supported her, and 68% of Latino women. While exit polling data has flaws, the early responses underline a stark racial divide among American women: the majority of white women embraced Trump and his platform, while women of color rejected him.

The strong support for Trump among white women suggests that many of them, if not “overtly racist”, simply “don’t think racism is a big deal”, said Mikki Kendall, a feminist cultural critic.

Politics Weekly, The Guardian’s political podcast, analyses Trump’s victory and looks ahead to a Trump presidency.

Anushka Asthana is joined by Gary Younge, Randeep Ramesh, Hannah Peaker and Mona Chalabi

Donald Trump is heading for the White House today after being elected as the 45th US president.

Barack Obama is still in charge for now but he will host President-elect Trump at a meeting in the Oval Office as part of the transition of power.

The meeting at (11am EST) could be an awkward encounter after what was said during a bitter campaign in which Obama branded Trump “unfit” for the presidency and “woefully unprepared”. But part of Obama’s job now is to help prepare Trump for the presidency and he has urged American’s to respect the shock election result.

Speaking from White House he said: “That’s what the country needs – a sense of unity; a sense of inclusion; a respect for our institutions, our way of life, rule of law; and a respect for each other.”

But many have been in no mood heed that call for unity. Thousands of demonstrators crowded into streets and surrounding his buildings in major American cities on Wednesday night, shouting “not my president.”

Some held banners saying “She got more votes” a reference to Hillary Clinton appearing poised to win the popular vote.

Bernie Sanders reacted to Trump’s victory by acknowledging that he successfully tapped into antiestablishment rage but Sanders vowed to continue to challenge him.

And international leaders have also been struggling in their own way to come to terms with Trump’s victory.

Here’s some key questions we’ve been asking - and answering - since Trump’s victory.

What’s happening today

Updated

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