In gracious post-win speech, US President-elect Donald Trump thanks Hillary Clinton and talks of 'reclaiming America's destiny'

NEW DELHI: In an uncharacteristically gracious and conciliatory speech, US President-elect Donald Trump , in his post-win speech, first thanked opponent Hillary Clinton for her "service to the nation" and hinted at healing a country bruised by a gruelling and divisive campaign season.

Having being accused of racism throughout his campaign - he called Mexicans "rapists" - the post-win Trump even talked of his campaign "being a movement comprising people of all races and backgrounds," possibly surprising many, as evidenced by an eruption of cheers when he said the word "races."

"This political stuff is nasty and it's tough," said Trump, who will be the 45th US President , and yet one who has never held public office. And about his opponent, who has indeed held public office, he had nothing but extremely nice things to say.

"Hillary has worked long and hard and we owe a major debt of gratitude to her for her work for this country," Trump said at his campaign headquarters in New York.

Even though he would later talk of putting America front and centre by "no longer settling for anything less than the best" and "reclaiming the country's destiny", he started his speech saying he "will be President for all of America", even for those "who've chosen not to support me."

Trump joked that there "are a few people" who didn't support him. He said he would "reach out" to these people for their "guidance and help."

Thereafter, 'reclamation' was essentially the theme of his speech, just like his campaign slogan, which was "Make America Great Again." His subtext was, of course, that in previous administrations, the US fell from some allegedly vaunted position it once held in the world.

"We are going to fix our inner cities, we are going to rebuild towns, schools, hospitals....which will become second to none...and we will put millions of our people to work. We will also finally take care of our great veterans. Everyone in this country will realize their potential, the forgotten men and women won't be forgotten anymore," Trump said.

Having been accused of excessive protectionism and an inward approach to foreign policy, today's post-win Trump also made sure to give a conciliatory shout out to the rest of the world.

"We will put America's interests first, but we will deal fairly with everyone," Trump said.

Trump would again talk of getting along with other countries, while he talked of his yet-unclear plan for economic growth.

"We have a great economic plan, we will double growth and have the strongest economy in word and we will at same time get along with all nations. We expect to have great, great relationships," Trump said, exhibiting his gift for hyperbole and vague generalizations, yet again.

"Unbelieveable, unbelievable," he said, during his victory speech, about his win. That was no hyperbole.

"We are going do beautiful things and successful things once again," Trump said, using one of his favourite words from the campaign trail, 'beautiful.'

Except this time, he was talking about America.