The Republican was elected with 8 per cent of the black vote, 28 per cent of the Hispanic vote and 27 per cent of the Asian-American vote

Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency with less support from black and Hispanic voters than any president in at least 40 years, a Reuters review of polling data shows, highlighting deep national divisions that have fuelled incidents of racial and political confrontation.

Mr. Trump was elected with 8 per cent of the black vote, 28 per cent of the Hispanic vote and 27 per cent of the Asian-American vote, according to the Reuters/Ipsos Election Day poll.

Among black voters, his showing was comparable to the 9 per cent captured by George W. Bush in 2000 and Ronald Reagan in 1984. But Mr. Bush and Reagan both did far better with Hispanic voters, capturing 35 per cent and 34 per cent, respectively, according to exit polling data compiled by the non-partisan Roper Centre for Public Opinion Research.

And Mr. Trump’s performance among Asian-Americans was the worst of any winning presidential candidate since tracking of that demographic began in 1992.

The racial polarisation behind Mr. Trump’s victory has helped set the stage for tensions that have surfaced repeatedly since the election, in white supremacist victory celebrations, in anti-Trump protests and civil rights rallies, and in hundreds of racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic hate crimes documented by the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC), which tracks extremist movements. The SPLC reports there were 701 incidents of “hateful harassment and intimidation” between the day following the November 8 election and November 16, with a spike in such incidents in the immediate wake of the vote.

Signs point to an atmosphere of confrontation. The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a white separatist group that vilifies African-Americans, Jews and other minorities, plans a December 3 rally in North Carolina to celebrate Mr. Trump’s victory. Left-wing and anarchist groups have called for organised protests to disrupt the President-elect’s January 20 inauguration. And a ‘Women’s March on Washington’, scheduled for the following day, is expected to draw hundreds of thousands to protest Mr. Trump’s presidency.

Though Mr. Trump’s election victory was driven by white voters, his performance even among that group was not as strong as some of his predecessors. Reagan and George H.W. Bush both won the presidency with higher shares of the white vote than the 55 per cent that Mr. Trump achieved.