US Elections 2016: Donald Trump Pulls Off Epic Upset to Beat Hillary Clinton to the White House, Vows to be 'Prez for All'

The Republican mogul defeated his Democratic rival, plunging global markets into turmoil and casting the long-standing global political order, which hinges on Washington's leadership, into doubt.

During a bitter two-year campaign that tugged at America's democratic fabric, the 70-year-old bombastic tycoon pledged to deport illegal immigrants, ban Muslims from the country and tear up free trade deals.

There was no disguising the concern of Washington's European partners that Trump's victory might destroy the Western alliance they still regard as a touchstone for stability and the rule of law.NERVOUS ALLIES

Russia's autocratic leader Vladimir Putin offered warm congratulations and seized on the opportunity to urge Trump to help him get "US-Russia relations out of their critical condition."

But EU leaders Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker invited him to an EU-US summit at his "earliest convenience" to seek reassurances about trans-Atlantic ties.IN PICTURES: As Trump Takes the White House, Here’s a Look at Other Billionaires Elected to Power

And NATO head Jens Stoltenberg warned Trump, who spoke during the campaign of making US allies take a bigger share of the Western security burden, that "US leadership is more important than ever."

Trump openly courted Putin during the race, called US support for NATO allies in Europe into question and suggested that South Korea and Japan should develop their own nuclear weapons.

One ally took heart from Trump's win. Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett said it guaranteed that his state would never have to accept the idea of an independent Palestine.

And some of the most enthusiastic support for Trump came from far-right and nationalist politicians in Europe such as French opposition figure Marine Le Pen, Matteo Salvini of Italy's Northern League and British euroskeptic Nigel Farage.MARKETS RATTLED

Trump, a businessman turned TV star turned-politico — who has never before held elected office — will become commander-in-chief of the world's sole true superpower on January 20.

Mexicans, fearing Trump's vow to build a wall to cut America off from its southern neighbor, were dismayed and the peso fell to historic lows.

But it was not all economic gloom, Moscow's stock market surged on the news and a Philippine property firm that is building a skyscraper licensed by the US tycoon saw its shares surge 20 percent.HOW DID HE WIN?

Trump's message was embraced by a large section of America's white majority who have grown increasingly disgruntled by the scope of social and economic change in the last eight years under their first black president, Barack Obama.

Many Americans from minority backgrounds expressed dismay at Trump's victory, which some saw as the result of what some observers said was a backlash against multicultural America.

Street protests over Trump's win in San Francisco and Oakland, California led to small disturbances, with demonstrators facing off against police.

Yet, during his improbable political rise, Trump has constantly proved the pundits and received political wisdom wrong.

Opposed by the entire senior hierarchy of his own Republican Party, he trounced more than a dozen better-funded and more experienced rivals in the party primary.

And, unique in modern US political history, he refused to release his tax returns — leaving a question mark over how much, if any, tax he has paid while running a global empire.

But the biggest upset came on Tuesday, as he swept to victory through a series of hard-fought wins in battleground states from Florida to Ohio. He amassed at least 290 electoral votes to 218 for Clinton, according to network projections.SUPREME COURT SEAT

Clinton had been widely assumed to be on course to enter the history books as the first woman to become president in America's 240-year existence.

So great was the shock of defeat that the normally robust Clinton did not come out to her supporters' poll-watching party to concede defeat, but instead called Trump and sent her campaign chairman.

"We are so proud of you. And we are so proud of her," chairman John Podesta told shell-shocked supporters. "She's done an amazing job, and she is not done yet."

The campaign confirmed Clinton herself would speak early Wednesday.BLOW FOR OBAMA

The election result was also a brutal humiliation for the White House incumbent, Obama, who for eight years has repeated the credo that there is no black or white America, only the United States of America.

"I'm betting that tomorrow, most moms and dads across America won't cast their vote for someone who denigrates their daughters," Obama said.

"I'm betting that tomorrow, true conservatives won't cast their vote for somebody with no regard for the Constitution," he added.