Former President Donald Trump has crossed the threshold of 270 votes in the Electoral College, securing a victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.
Though all results are still unofficial until local election officials across the country verify and certify the outcome in the coming days and weeks, Trump declared victory at his election night party just before 3 a.m. Wednesday.
Though votes in key swing states were still being counted, the speech signaled the end of an extraordinary presidential contest defined by Trump’s divisive rhetoric, his numerous criminal cases, and two attempts on his life.
Trump won the electoral vote-heavy prizes of Texas and Florida, and the battleground states of North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
Harris took New York and California, as well as Virginia. With four state results left to go, the map shows huge swathes of the country going to Donald Trump, including much of the South, Midwest, and Northwest regions.
Kamala Harris has picked up states in the Northeast, the West Coast, as well as Colorado and Illinois.
Crucially, Donald Trump is projected to win the battleground states of North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, making him the next U.S. president.
Trump is just the second president to win two nonconsecutive White House terms.
After losing his reelection bid to President Joe Biden in 2020, Trump, the 45th president, will now become the 47th.
Trump promised to “heal” the country and that his second presidency “will truly be the golden age of America.” “We overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible,” Trump said.
During his roughly 25-minute speech, Trump thanked his family and campaign staff and invited his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, and Dana White, CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship, to speak on stage.
Vance, poised to become Trump’s vice president, said a new administration would usher in an economic “comeback” for the U.S. “I think we just witnessed the greatest political comeback in the history of the United States of America,” Vance said.
White thanked popular podcast host Joe Rogan for his election eve endorsement of Trump. “This is what happens when the machine comes after you,” White said. “This is karma, ladies and gentlemen.”
Trump’s victory marks a series of historic firsts. At 78, he is the oldest person ever to win a U.S. presidential election.
He will be the first president in 132 years — since Grover Cleveland — to serve two nonconsecutive terms in office. And he emerged victorious from what is likely the most expensive presidential race in history.
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, the first president to be impeached twice.
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He was acquitted by the U.S. Senate, where many Republicans argued that he no longer posed a threat because he had left office.
He is also the oldest person elected to the office. His vice president, 40-year-old Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, will become the highest-ranking member of the millennial generation in the U.S. government.
The former president was convicted in New York in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush money paid to a porn star ahead of the 2016 election. His sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 26.
Trump is subject to additional criminal charges in an election-interference case in Georgia that has become bogged down.
On the federal level, he’s been indicted for his role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election and improperly handling classified material. However, when he becomes president on Jan. 20, Trump could appoint an attorney general who would erase the federal charges.
As he prepares to return to the White House, Trump has vowed to swiftly enact a radical agenda that would transform nearly every aspect of American government.
That includes plans to launch the largest deportation effort in the nation’s history, to use the Justice Department to punish his enemies, to dramatically expand the use of tariffs, and to again pursue a zero-sum approach to foreign policy that threatens to upend longstanding foreign alliances, including the NATO pact.
If Trump pursues his campaign promises, his second administration will soon set out to enact an ambitious, controversial agenda centered on deep tax cuts, mass deportations, and reshaped relationships with foreign leaders.
Trump has also vowed to impose heavy tariffs, claiming that they will simultaneously boost U.S. revenues, strengthen domestic industries, and deter unwanted foreign competition.
Trump and campaign officials tried to distance the candidate from a comprehensive conservative policy blueprint written by the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank.
The plan calls for restructuring the federal government to empower the president, further restricting abortion access, and limiting immigration, among other proposals.
As president, he’s vowed to pursue an agenda centered on dramatically reshaping the federal government and pursuing retribution against his perceived enemies.
Speaking to his supporters Wednesday morning, Trump claimed he had won “an unprecedented and powerful mandate.”
“In 2016, I declared I am your voice. Today I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution,” he said in March 2023.
His win against Harris, the first woman of color 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.
