THE US woke up to a victory for far-right demagogue Donald Trump yesterday after voters rejected warmongering neoliberal Hillary Clinton.

The billionaire celebrated his victory in the small hours of yesterday after Ms Clinton phoned him to concede defeat.

Despite his “lock her up” campaign rhetoric, Mr Trump said: “We owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country.”

But in a jibe at the self-entitled former secretary of state and first lady to Bill Clinton, he left the stage to the strains of the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

The Republicans also retained full control of Congress, holding on to a wafer-thin majority in the 100-strong Senate, where a third of seats were up for grabs, and a slightly reduced lead in the House of Representatives, where all 435 seats were contested.

Many mainstream Republicans had distanced themselves from the wild card candidate who used their party to get to the White House.

George W Bush — the former president whose brother Jeb lost out to Mr Trump in the Republican primaries — and his wife Laura kept to their threat not to vote for him, instead marking “none of the above” on their ballot papers.

Early indications were that turnout was almost five points up on 2012’s lacklustre 57.5 per cent, bringing it roughly level with the 62.3 per cent in 2008 when Barack Obama was first elected on a wave of hope.

Mr Trump garnered 5 per cent more of the black vote than 2012 Republican candidate Mitt Romney and 2 per cent more Latin American voters.

That was despite his racist rhetoric, calling Mexicans rapists and pledging to halt immigration from “Muslim” countries and institute “extreme vetting” for refugees.

“Now it is time for America to bind the wounds of division,” he said, claiming he would be a “president for all Americans.”

To other nations he derided over the past year, Mr Trump said: “We will seek common ground, not hostility; partnership, not conflict.”

In a potential clue as to who will be offered cabinet posts, he thanked former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Senator Jeff Sessions and creationist brain surgeon Ben Carson, a one-time hopeful in the Republican primaries.