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US Election 2016: Protests continue as the Donald Trump era dawns on America

Trump responds as protests continue

President-elect Donald Trump has taken to Twitter to comment on protests against his presidency, as a demonstration in Oregon turned into a riot.

That's the end of our live coverage on the election this week, folks. Thanks for joining us.

Stick with smh.com.au for more breaking news and analysis as the Donald Trump era dawns on America.

America's gift to the Australian economy

"The unexpected Trump victory has turned the expectations for commodities prices upside-down," writes Fairfax Media's Elizabeth Knight.

"Even though Australia doesn't supply the US with coal and iron ore, the fact that the global demand for these commodities will rise thanks to Trump's big infrastructure plans, means the global prices will rise."

Read more on 'America's gift to the Australian economy' here.

The price of Iron ore has soared to almost US$75 a tonne which is almost double where it was at the start of the year.
The price of Iron ore has soared to almost US$75 a tonne which is almost double where it was at the start of the year. Photo: Brendon Thorne

What anti-Trump protesters can learn from Republicans

Activists are starting to prepare for what they hope will be the nation's strongest protests since the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Rallies scheduled for Saturday in New York and Los Angeles, and a protest planned for Washington on Jan. 20, when the New York businessman succeeds President Barack Obama, will be just the beginning, activists said in a series of interviews.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, a civil rights leader from New York, says anti-Trump protesters should borrow a page from the playbook that Republicans used to oppose Obama's policies.

That movement started organically, later developed as the Tea Party movement and eventually resulted in the election of Trump, said Sharpton, whose National Action Network plans to launch a new organizing effort at its New York headquarters on Saturday.

"We are not going to be as ugly as them, but we are going to be just as persistent," Sharpton said. "This is not going away."

- Reuters

CBS snags first television interview with President-elect Trump

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"Not my president"

Rallies protesting Donald Trump's election are scheduled to continue around the US over the weekend.

In Atlanta, Georgia, an organisation called Not My President is hosting a march on Friday evening, at which more than 1000 people are expected. A Facebook event for the march says the US has "had its endless share of bigotry and racism, even under the most seemingly progressive of leaders...Trump is not our president. Please join us in anger, despair, triumph, and resilience as we refuse this farce of democracy."

Thousands of protesters are also expected to gather at Chicago's Millennium Park on Saturday morning to "fight for change."

Rallies are scheduled for Saturday in New York and Los Angeles, while a mass protest is planned for Washington on Jan. 20, when the New York businessman succeeds President Barack Obama.

Trump willing to keep elements of Obama health law

In his first interview since winning Tuesday's election, President-elect Donald Trump has told the Wall Street Journal he would consider retaining elements of the Affordable Care Act, despite a repeated campaign pledge to repeal the law.

After a bitter campaign...and a post-election period marked by anti-Trump protests in numerous cities, Trump said he is placing a high priority on bringing the country together.

"I want a country that loves each other," Trump said. "I want to stress that." 

...Asked whether he thought his rhetoric had gone too far in the campaign, the president-elect responded: "No. I won.""

"I want a country that loves each other:" US President-elect Donald Trump.
"I want a country that loves each other:" US President-elect Donald Trump.  Photo: AP

Anti-Trump protests continue

Dozens of students from multiple public schools in Denver walked out of class on Friday afternoon to protest the presidential election of Donald Trump. 

Denver Public Schools tweeted they were aware of the walkout and were working with police to ensure safety during the protest.

"We respect our students' desire to express themselves, and schools are providing opportunities on campus for them to do so. We are encouraging students not to leave school, but to stay and participate in conversations with leaders at their camp."

Meanwhile, violent protests have continued around the US since Tuesday's result, including Portland, where 29 people have been arrested during violent protests.

A driver's windshield was damaged after she drove in the area with protesters demonstrating against Tuesday's U.S. ...
A driver's windshield was damaged after she drove in the area with protesters demonstrating against Tuesday's U.S. presidential election results. Photo: AP

'Prediction professor' makes another forecast

In September, Washington-based professor Allan Lichtman made a prediction:

"That if elected, Trump would eventually be impeached by a Republican Congress that would prefer a President Mike Pence - someone who establishment Republicans know and trust."

And now that Trump is the President-elect?

"They don't want Trump as president, because they can't control him. He's unpredictable. They'd love to have Pence...And I'm quite certain Trump will give someone grounds for impeachment, either by doing something that endangers national security or because it helps his pocketbook."

Read more here. 

Will Trump burst Australia's housing bubble?

"...According to the bond market reaction, [Trump] will burst Australia's east coast housing bubble by causing interest rates to rise. That would be the relatively nice way to prick the bubble.

"The more common fear is that he could start a trade war with China that would cause a global recession – one we wouldn't escape. That definitely would not be a nice way to achieve lower housing prices."

Read more here, from Business Day contributing editor Michael Pascoe. 

Trump could be an inflation driver.
Trump could be an inflation driver. Photo: Judy Green
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All in the family?

Three of Donald Trump's children, who played a prominent role in his election campaign, will continue working closely with the President-elect, making up three members of his transition team.

Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka Trump will join the presidential transition team, led by Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

The team also includes Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, best known for having bankrolled the infamous sex-tape lawsuit of professional wrestler Hulk Hogan against the now-bankrupt blog Gawker.

 

Vice President-elect Mike Pence takes reins from Chris Christie

Vice President-elect Mike Pence will take over the job of leading Donald Trump's transition effort, taking the helm from Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, the New York Times reports.

It is understood Mr Trump told advisers he wanted to accelerate the process of assembling his team by tapping into Mr Pence's Washington experience.

Mr. Christie, along with Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, and Michael T. Flynn, a retired lieutenant general who has been a top campaign supporter, will serve as vice chairs of the transition, sources told the New York Times.

News of exactly who will be getting a tap for the Trump administration could land soon, with the president-elect tweeting that he would soon be making decisions "on the people who will be running our government!"


Read the full story.

The full statement on the implementation phase of the presidential transition team.
The full statement on the implementation phase of the presidential transition team. 

Trump must do the healing, says senior Democrat

While some senior Democrats - including Barack Obama himself - have been fairly conciliatory towards Donald Trump in recent days, others are not following suit.

Senate minority leader Harry Reid released a furious statement denouncing the president-elect for his behaviour during the campaign and blaming him for fear within minority communities in the US.

"I have heard more stories in the past 48 hours of Americans living in fear of their own government and their fellow Americans than I can remember hearing in five decades in politics," he said. "Hispanic Americans who fear their families will be torn apart, African Americans being heckled on the street, Muslim Americans afraid to wear a headscarf, gay and lesbian couples having slurs hurled at them..."

"Every news piece that breathlessly obsesses over inauguration preparations compounds their fear by normalising a man who has threatened to tear families apart, who has bragged about sexually assaulting women and who has directed crowds of thousands to intimidate reporters and assault African Americans."

"If this is going to be a time of healing, we must first put the responsibility for healing where it belongs: at the feet of Donald Trump, a sexual predator who lost the popular vote and fuelled his campaign with bigotry and hate."

Journalists concerned about Trump access

On Thursday Trump broke decades of precedent by not allowing a press pool to travel with him for his first visit to the White House as president-elect. It came after a campaign where he also eschewed the standard practice of letting the press travel with him, and several days this week of his team failing to send readouts of his conversations with foreign leaders - US journalists have instead had to source them from the foreign leaders instead. 

The White House Correspondents Association President Jeff Mason released a statement, according to Politico, saying the organisation was deeply concerned about this break from precedent.

"In addition to breaking with decades of historical precedent and First Amendment principles, this decision could leave Americans blind about his whereabouts and well-being in the event of a national crisis."

Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks told Politico that the team "fully expect to operate a traditional pool and look forward to implementing our plans in the near future" but many journalists remain skeptical.

Read the full story here. 

Chelsea Clinton to run for office?

There is an unconfirmed report in today's New York Post that claims Chelsea Clinton is being groomed to run for office - a Congressional seat in New York that happens to cover the town where Bill and Hillary Clinton live.

"While it is true the Clintons need some time to regroup after Hillary's crushing loss, they will not give up... While politics isn't the life Hillary wanted for Chelsea, she chose to go on the campaign trail for her mother and has turned out to be very poised, articulate and comfortable with the visibility," the paper quotes an anonymous source as saying.

Chelsea Clinton campaigns for her mother in Colorado.
Chelsea Clinton campaigns for her mother in Colorado. Photo: AP
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Trump flip flops on protesters

On Thursday night in the US, the second in a row to see mass protests in many American cities, President-elect Trump tweeted this message, blaming the media and claiming they were all "professional" protestors.

That Tweet drew a huge amount of criticism online from people pointing out the right to assemble was in the US Constitution, as well as mocking him for complaining about unfair treatment the week he won a presidential election.

By the morning, he had changed his message:

 

Moore: 'There is going to be a massive resistance'

Michael Moore - who, as we wrote earlier this week, supported Clinton but correctly predicted Trump's victory in the rust belt - has given a lengthy television interview on MSNBC this morning on the election and its aftermath. 

One interesting insight was his alarm when he saw people on MSNBC mocking the fact that Trump had spent so much of his campaign money on baseball caps. Moore, who is from Michigan and is rarely seen without a baseball cap, said he watched that mockery and thought: "there is the bubble right there" of the media who didn't understand the Midwest.

"This is where I'm from, this is where I live," he said. 

He also said the protests that had happened in the last two days were only the beginning of a bigger resistance to Trump's administration. "This is going to be a massive resistance... there is going to be the largest demonstration ever on inauguration day."

Here's a clip:

 

Trump assembling his team

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to soon begin announcing his inner circle and cabinet picks. He started his day by Tweeting that he had a "Busy day planned in New York."

"Will soon be making some very important decisions on the people who will be running our government!"

Speculation is abundant. This comes via the The New York Times:

The critical position of chief of staff - the gatekeeper for the president inside the West Wing -is expected to come down to a choice between Steve Bannon, the editor of Breitbart News who was chairman of Trump's campaign, and Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and a loyal supporter of Trump, told CNN on Thursday that he might accept an appointment as attorney general, saying that "there's probably nobody that knows the Justice Department better than me."

Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs executive and Trump's campaign finance chairman, is said to be a serious contender for Treasury secretary (though Carl Icahn, the investor, and Republican representative Jeb Hensarling have also been mentioned in the press)

De Niro invited to migrate to Italy

Moving to Italy?

Moving to Italy? Photo: AP

Here is Robert De Niro during the photo call for Grudge Match in Rome back in 2014. Afterwards he quipped that he might have to move to Italy if Donald Trump was elected. Now, an emigration association in his ancestral region of Molise in Italy want to make the Hollywood star their president.

De Niro used a video to encourage people to vote in the election to hit out at Trump.

Robert De Niro blasts 'stupid' Trump

The actor delivers a scathing attack on Republican nominee Donald Trump in a new video. (Video courtesy ABC News 24)

'Another despot rises to the top'

"The disparity of fortunes between the rich and the poor had reached its height," wrote Plutarch, "so that the city seemed to be in a dangerous condition and no other means for freeing it from disturbance seemed possible but for despotic power."

That was two and a half millennia ago. He was writing about Athens in 594 BC but he was writing about America in 2016 and hundreds of other revolutionary moments through the ages.

Our international editor, Peter Hartcher, has his say here.

Trump tempest on the way to Australia?

What does a Donald Trump presidency mean for Australia and the world? SMH International Editor Peter Hartcher explains.

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