U.S. Election 2024: Donald Trump elected 47th President

Republican Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States on Wednesday, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who refused to accept defeat four years ago.

With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency.

Trump held a lead over Vice President Kamala Harris in the electoral college as well as the popular vote throughout election night.

The 78-year-old Republican flipped key states in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Trump was also projected to win in Nevada and Arizona.

His win against Harris, the first woman of colour to lead a major party ticket, marks the second time he has defeated a female rival in a general election.

Harris, the current vice president, rose to the top of the ticket after President Joe Biden exited the race amid alarm about his advanced age. Despite an initial surge of energy around her campaign, she struggled during a compressed timeline to convince disillusioned voters that she represented a break from an unpopular administration.

The results cap a historically tumultuous and competitive election season that included two assassination attempts targeting Trump and a shift to a new Democratic nominee just a month before the party’s convention.

Trump will inherit a range of challenges when he assumes office on Jan. 20, including heightened political polarization and global crises that are testing America’s influence abroad.

Trump is the first former president to return to power since Grover Cleveland regained the White House in the 1892 election. He is the first person convicted of a felony to be elected president and, at 78, is the oldest person elected to the office.

His vice president, 40-year-old Ohio Sen. JD Vance, will become the highest-ranking member of the millennial generation in the U.S. government.

Trump declares victory: ‘I will be fighting for you’

Speaking to his supporters at his campaign headquarters in Florida early Wednesday, Trump declared victory and promised that he would “not rest until we have delivered the strong, safe and prosperous America.”

“Every single day,” Trump said, “I will be fighting for you with every breath in my body.”

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Someone whose political career has been defined by division and acrimony, he told the audience that it was “time to unite” as a country.

“It’s time to put the divisions of the past four years behind us,” Trump said. “It’s time to unite.” “We have to put our country first for at least a period of time,” he added. “We have to fix it.”

Most of the important people in Trump’s personal and political life also joined him on stage in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The former first lady Melania Trump stood near her husband and was joined by Barron, the former president’s youngest son. Trump’s older children, Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka and Tiffany, all joined their father on stage, too.

Trump’s top political minds, including top campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, joined Trump on stage. His political allies were on stage, too, including House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Trump also celebrated a few celebrities in the audience and on stage. Dana White, the CEO of UFC, was on stage with Trump, and the former president called golfer Bryson DeChambeau on stage. Trump also shouted out Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, who has become one of his most high-profile supporters. “We have a new star. A star is born: Elon,” Trump said.

His supporters gathered at his election night watch party and were hugging one another, making calls, jumping up and down, and throwing their MAGA hats in the air as results continued to trickle in.

As midnight approached on the East Coast, the Harris campaign had turned off its projected broadcasts of CNN at its election night watch party at Howard University. Instead, various high-energy remixes blared from speakers alongside floodlights flickering in tempo to hype the crowd.

What to expect in Trump’s next presidency

There will be far fewer checks on Trump when he returns to the White House. He has plans to swiftly enact a sweeping agenda that would transform nearly every aspect of American government.

His GOP critics in Congress have largely been defeated or retired. Federal courts are now filled with judges he appointed. The U.S. Supreme Court, which includes three Trump-appointed justices, issued a ruling earlier this year affording presidents broad immunity from prosecution.

Trump’s language and behaviour during the campaign sparked growing warnings from Democrats and some Republicans about shocks to democracy that his return to power would bring. He repeatedly praised strongman leaders, warned that he would deploy the military to target political opponents he labelled the “enemy from within,” threatened to take action against news organizations for unfavourable coverage and suggested suspending the Constitution.

Some who served in his first White House, including Vice President Mike Pence and John Kelly, Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, either declined to endorse him or issued dire public warnings about his return to the presidency.

While Harris focused much of her initial message around themes of joy, Trump channelled a powerful sense of anger and resentment among voters.

He seized on frustrations over high prices and fears about crime and migrants who illegally entered the country on Biden’s watch. He also highlighted wars in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to cast Democrats as presiding over – and encouraging – a world in chaos.