Trump won his party's nomination after defeating Ted Cruz and several other candidates in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries.

Wall Street banks and other big financial institutions spent a record $2 billion trying to influence the 2016 United States elections.

[1][2] Trump's right-wing populist nationalist campaign, which promised to "Make America Great Again" and opposed political correctness, illegal immigration, and many United States free-trade agreements[3] garnered extensive free media coverage due to Trump's inflammatory comments.

[4][5] Clinton emphasized her extensive political experience, denounced Trump and many of his supporters as a "basket of deplorables", bigots and extremists, and advocated the expansion of President Obama's policies; racial, LGBT, and women's rights; and inclusive capitalism.

[7][8] A joint US intelligence review stated with high confidence that, "Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election.

[12] With her gender presenting as the biggest target for Trump's campaign as a point of criticism, the Clinton campaign made a conscious decision to capitalize on the negativity surrounding her gender to appeal to female voters (young women in particular) by co-opting feminist ideals alongside traditional democratic ones.

The party's social media campaign was particularly aggressive, with the use of hashtags and celebrity endorsement being crucial to Clinton's appeal to the wider public.

In one of the greatest election upsets in U.S. History, businessman and reality television personality Donald Trump of New York won the Republican Party's presidential nomination on July 19, 2016, after defeating Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Ohio Governor John Kasich, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, and several other candidates in the Republican primary elections.

Libertarian Gary Johnson won 3.3% of the popular vote, the strongest performance by a third party presidential nominee since the 1996 election.

Trump flipped the states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio, and Iowa, that were won by Obama in 2008 and 2012.

Additionally, elections were held to select the delegates for the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories, including the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico.