Obama: We ‘are all rooting for’ Trump to succeed as President
President Obama has said that he is “rooting for” Donald Trump to be a successful US President.
Mr Obama made a speech following Hillary Clinton’s concession speech in which she called for Trump to be given a chance to lead.
He said “we are now all rooting for [Trump’s] success” as President, in the hope that he will be successful in “uniting and leading” the US as one.
Despite noting that Clinton and Trump have some “pretty significant differences”, which he said was “no secret”, he compared their polarised opinions to his differences with George Bush.
He said: “One thing you realise quickly in this job is that the presidency and vice presidency is bigger than all of us”.
Concluding, Mr Obama paid tribute to Secretary Clinton for her service and public life.
He said he “could not be prouder” of Clinton for her “extraordinary life of public service”.
Adding: “She was a great first lady, she was an outstanding senator for the state of New York and she could not have been a better secretary of state.”
He also invited Mr Trump to the White House before he ends his term in the hope that they can stage a successful transition.
The US Presidential election was last night called for Trump, who won a shock victory over rival Clinton.
Secretary Clinton had held a narrow lead in polls ahead of the vote, but Mr Trump built up a lead in the electoral college system by taking swing states of Florida and North Carolina.
Trump had pledged to sign the ‘First Amendment Defence Act’ to permit religious homophobic discrimination, promised to “consider” appointing ultra-conservative Supreme Court justices to repeal equal marriage, and come out in favour of North Carolina’s anti-trans law – while running mate Mike Pence confirmed a plan to dismantle Barack Obama’s protections for LGBT people.
The Republican Platform passed earlier this year contained some of the most anti-LGBT provisions in decades, opposing a ban on ‘gay cure’ therapy and attacking same-sex adoption and parenting.
A hardline evangelical, the Governor of Indiana stirred up international outrage last year when he signed Indiana’s controversial ‘Religious Freedom Restoration Act’, which gave businesses the right to discriminate against gay people on the grounds of religion.
Governor Pence previously suggested that HIV prevention funding be drained in order to fund state-sponsored ‘gay cure’ therapy, and earlier this year appeared unable to answer when asked whether it should be legal to fire people because of their sexuality.
An investigation last month found that Pence approved extreme anti-LGBT articles when he was the head of the Indiana Policy Review journal in the 1990s.
