US Election - Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump by 2million votes

Election night did not provide the party Clinton supporters had hoped for

Hillary Clinton's lead over Donald Trump in the popular count of the US presidential election has increased to two million votes.

Republican President-elect Mr Trump won the election by winning a majority of the electoral college votes, and he will be inaugurated in January. But with votes still being counted, two weeks on, the Cook Political Report has his tally at 62.2m and hers at
64.2m. It is the fifth time the winner of the popular vote has lost the election.

In 2000, Democrat Al Gore's final lead over George W Bush, who won the election after a prolonged legal challenge, was nearly 544,000. The Supreme Court ultimately decided that election by awarding Mr Bush a win in the contested state of Florida.

This year, Mrs Clinton scored large tallies in states like California but Mr Trump won most of the so-called swing states, which ultimately decide the outcome of elections. The electoral college system favours candidates who win by a small margin in lots of states over ones that win by a landslide in just a few. A group of academics, lawyers and data experts is also trying to persuade the Clinton team to join their effort to investigate the results in three states to check there was no foreign computer hacking that manipulated the outcome. They are curious why Ms Clinton performed worse in counties that relied on electronic voting machines compared to paper ballots and optical scanners.

But her campaign has not indicated any interest in joining a fight for a recount. The Green party candidate, Jill Stein, is raising funds to request a recount in the same states - Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, all won by Mr Trump.

Trump's relationship with the media has been tense

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has issued a Thanksgiving message in which he urged the country to join his effort to "rebuild the country" and heal after a bruising and bitter election campaign. "Emotions are raw and tensions just don't heal overnight," he said. "It doesn't go quickly, unfortunately, but we have before us the chance now to make history together to bring real change to Washington, real safety to our cities, and real prosperity to our communities, including our inner cities." On Wednesday, Mr Trump made two more appointments to his new government - Nikki Haley as ambassador to the UN and Betsy DeVos as education secretary. He was interviewed by the New York Times on Tuesday, and said his sprawling global business empire would provide no conflict of interest when he assumes power.