On November 8th, 2016, the country held its breath in anticipation as votes were cast and totaled, waiting for the announcement of the next president of the United States. Early into the morning of November 9th, Republican candidate Donald Trump was declared the United States’ President-elect.

But it was a very close race for both parties. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, getting more individual votes from the people. According to CNN statistics, Clinton received 47.8% of the popular vote while Trump was not far behind, receiving only .5% lower.

However, Trump won the overall electoral vote, and this is the vote that determines presidency. The first candidate to reach 270 votes from the electoral college ultimately wins the election. Trump finished the race with 290 electoral votes, taking ahold of many swing states which were originally thought to be secured by Clinton.

Florida was one of these swing states–and a highly anticipated result at that. Whichever candidate won Florida gained 29 electoral votes. Trump ended up taking the state but not without a fight from Clinton supporters as he only won the Florida lead by 1.3% of the popular vote.

Similarly to Florida, Trump did not win by a large margin in many states. In fact, according to The Washington Post, the election was so close that in states like Michigan and Wisconsin, Trump surpassed Clinton by fewer than 30,000 votes. Due to the quite controversial nature of this election and the country being almost perfectly split on deciding between the two presidential candidates, internal conflict has arisen since the announcement of the next President-elect.

The days following the election were peppered with riots and protests, declaring President-elect Donald Trump to be “not my president.” While many of these protests remained peaceful demonstrations, others quickly turned to anarchy. Portland, Oregon and Oakland, California were two main cities to experience these violent riots, including the offenses of vandalized businesses, smashed cars, and assaulted police officers.

According to President Barack Obama, American citizens need to come together in this time of controversy and opposition. Even though many may not have seen the victory of the President-elect for whom they stood behind, those who voted for Trump and those voted for Clinton are, in the end, just fellow American citizens.

“I have instructed my team to…work as hard as we can to make sure that this is a successful transition for the President-elect–because we are now all rooting for his success in uniting and leading the country,” Obama said, addressing the election results Wednesday afternoon.

Citizens, regardless of the presidential nominee for whom they voted, must put aside differences to ultimately represent what America stands for and aid in a successful run of the next four years, for all American citizens are on the same team.

As Obama said, “We’re not Democrats first. We’re not Republicans first. We are Americans first.”

And given this advice, Americans should show that within their actions. American citizens should uphold their country’s face and not bring it down with division. Because hate for the President-elect will ultimately get this country nowhere, but support for a smooth presidential transition will help to bring about an overall sense of unity.