New York // After one of the longest and most bitter campaigns in American election history, the two candidates embarked on a final, frantic round of rallies on Monday as polls showed Hillary Clinton with a potentially decisive edge.
Mrs Clinton addressed the division in the country as she boarded a plane for the first of four final-day campaign stops.
"I have some work to bring the country together," the Democratic candidate said. "I really do want to be the president for everybody - people who vote for me, people who vote against me."
As the jittery Clinton camp dispatched its biggest guns - including her husband and president Barack Obama - to defend her lead, a last-minute schedule change by Mr Trump to address supporters in Michigan showed how solid Democrat states may still be up for grabs.
The manoeuvring illustrated how Mr Trump's unpredictable brand of politics has upset conventions in a bad-tempered election that once looked as if it would be a romp for Mrs Clinton.
He continued his attacks on the integrity of his rival after the FBI once again announced Mrs Clinton would not face charges over her emails.
"Hillary Clinton is guilty, she knows it, the FBI knows it, the people know it and now it's up to the American people to deliver justice at the ballot box on November 8," he said during a rally on Sunday evening in the Detroit suburbs.
The issue of her private email server had threatened to overshadow election day after the FBI director announced a fresh inquiry into the Democratic candidate's communications.
The shock twist prompted a narrowing in the polls which had once put the former secretary of state as much as 11 points clear of her billionaire opponent. By election eve, the latest opinion polls suggested Mrs Clinton had moved back out to a four or five-point lead.
Mrs Clinton was due to end her campaign to become America's first female president in the battleground state of North Carolina at midnight on Monday while Mr Trump was expected to be in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Kellyann Conway, Mr Trump's campaign manager, said it showed they had the Democrats on the run.
"If they thought Michigan was in the bag, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama would not be returning there today or tomorrow," she said.
Much of the country will breathe a sigh of relief when campaigning ends and voting begins on Tuesday.
A marathon election cycle will be remembered as the most bitter in memory. Opinion polls suggest the two candidates are the least popular in history.
Mr Trump's campaign began with his characterisation of Mexicans as rapists and drug smugglers, and was followed by threats to ban foreign Muslims from entering the US, claims that the election was rigged and by the emergence of an 11-year-old recording in which he boasted of sexual assault. At times his rallies were marred by violence and he has repeatedly refused to say he will accept the election results if he loses, prompting some supporters to say they will take up arms.
His vulgar rhetoric - characterised by an authoritarian, nativist tone and misogynistic outbursts - has seen senior party figures, including the former presidents George Bush and George W Bush, refuse to endorse him.
Meanwhile, Mrs Clinton was hit by a health scare in September, when she contracted pneumonia, and by allegations she mishandled classified information by using a personal email server during her time as secretary of state.
She received a boost on Sunday when James Comey, the director of the FBI, released a letter saying no evidence of wrongdoing had been found in a review of emails found on a computer used by Huma Abedin, her closest aide.
In addition, Jeanne Zaino, professor of political science at New York's Iona College, said the Clinton campaign had been smart in directing late attention to states where early voting was not allowed and that she would benefit from the Democrats' strong get-out-the-vote operation.
"So they seem incredibly strategic, where looking at the Trump campaign it seems they are throwing a Hail Mary pass to a certain extent," she said.
"You have to give the guy credit, he has been everywhere, he has been relentless and driven, but is that the best way to spend your time and your energy?"
However, in an eve-of-election email to supporters, Mr Trump's running mate Mike Pence insisted victory was theirs.
"It's a close race - but with your help, I know we'll win on Tuesday," he said.
"The enthusiasm that I'm seeing from not just Republicans, but independents and many Democrats around the country, is like nothing I've seen in my lifetime since the days of Ronald Reagan."
Analysts caution that the vagaries of America's electoral college system mean a Trump win would need a slew of battleground states - such as Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania - to break his way, while Mrs Clinton needs only one or two to secure victory.
That leaves many Republicans pondering what comes next for their party after the divisions sown by Mr Trump.
Matt Lewis, author of Too Dumb to Fail which charts the turmoil in the party, said Republicans would have to decide what sort of party they wanted.
"We are still at the beginning of this. I don't know if we want to call it a civil war - but I don't think this is going to end if Donald Trump loses," he said.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
