Donald Trump applauds his ‘landslide’ Electoral College vote win as he prepares to move into the White House

DONALD Trump is now officially the next President of the United States, after he secured the 270 electoral votes he needed to secure his position as the next Leader of the Free World.

The billionaire crossed the line on Monday when electors in Texas cast their ballot.

There were rumblings that he could be taken down after a groundswell of support for a campaign to get "faithless" Republican electors casting their vote for another candidate.

A group rebel electors against Trump becoming president had signed an agreement to try and prevent him being sworn in, and Republicans had been swamped with pleas to cast ballots of someone else when meetings take place on Monday.

However, the Associated Press carried out 330 interviews with more than 330 electors from both parties, said they had no intention of voting for anyone other than the billionaire.

Trump took the result he needed.

The president-elect applauded his own victory, telling reporters in a statement: "Today marks a historic electoral landslide victory in our nation's democracy.

"I thank the American people for their overwhelming vote to elect me as their next President of the United States.

"The official votes cast by the Electoral College exceeded the 270 required to secure the presidency by a very large margin, far greater than ever anticipated by the media."

Electors from Pennsylvania, North Carolina Ohio and Louisiana allowed Trump to secure 134 of the 270 electoral votes he needed to formally win the presidency.

Then it was just four hours later he hit 268 electoral votes, while Hillary Clinton held 166.

Two Texas electors went rogue, and voted for grass roots candidates.

But by 5:30 p.m US EST, Trump was in the White House bar moving in his furniture.

He looked set score 306 of the 538 electoral votes under the system which has been in place since 1789

In the U.S. presidents are elected by the Electoral College - not by popular vote.

Trump needed 270 Electoral College votes to secure his role in the White House out of a total of 538 electors.

Clinton was 1.7 million votes ahead of Trump in this year's election in the popular vote.

There were a number of protests outside Electoral Colleges on Monday against votes for the Republican, but they proved futile in stopping him winning the ballot.

The news came as Trump faced down a number of opponents and schemes to stop his new role being given the final green light.

Last week leading Democrat Elizabeth Warren and a number of groups announced plans to introduce a bill forcing the president-elect to be more transparent before he takes office.

If the bill goes through before he is sworn in on Jan 20, failure to do so means the billionaire could be impeached.

She tweeted last Thursday: "Placing assets in a true blind trust has been the standard for previous presidents. Our bill makes clear we expect Trump to do the same."

If his assets were put in a blind trust, it would mean the businessman could not touch or have any knowledge of what was happening with his company.

However, with the Democrats being in a minority in the Senate and House of Representatives, it is highly unlikely the bill they are proposing will go through.

Her tweet came as six organisations went to Trump Tower to deliver petitions which had been signed by more than 400,000 people demanding the billionaire had to completely separate himself from The Trump Organisation, his network of hotels, golf courses and residences.

If he does not, he could be facing a conflict of interest when he takes office on January 20th across a number of areas from foreign policy to tax.

Some critics have suggested his only option is to sell off the family business altogether.

The president-elect was supposed to be having a news conference last Thursday to explain his plan, while he carried out his four years in office, but it was postponed.

Trump, 70, has indicated he plans to hand over the reigns to his sons Donald Jr and Eric, and no new deals would be carried out while he was president.