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His historic victory makes him the first convicted felon to become president, the oldest person elected to the office and the first leader to return to the White House since Grover Cleveland in 1892.
It’s a remarkable comeback for a man who refused to accept defeat to President Joe Biden in 2020, sparked a violent rebellion and survived being shot in an assassination attempt.
History was also calling for Harris, the first woman of color to head a major party, becoming the second Democratic woman in a row to lose to the billionaire.
In the end, a dramatically polarized America chose Trump — who attacked his opponent with personal insults while promising to take a historically tough stance on immigration — over Harris, who sought to persuade voters to “turn the page” with a more positive message but appeared unable to deliver. shook off their blame for her role in the Biden administration’s failure to adequately address the cost-of-living crisis.
The Republican candidate won two key swing states, North Carolina and Georgia, around midnight on the US East Coast (4pm AEDT) and took Pennsylvania and its all-important 19 Electoral College votes an hour or two later.
Wisconsin tipped him over the edge as US sunrise approached (around 9.30pm AEDT) and he held on to leads in other battlegrounds Michigan, Arizona and Nevada, raising the prospect of a seven-state red preview expected to decide elections.
Shortly after Pennsylvania was called, and close to 3 a.m. local time, Trump addressed his supporters in Florida and declared victory.
“This was a movement like no one had seen before, and frankly, this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time,” he said.
“Something like this has never happened in this country, and maybe even wider.
“And now it will reach a new level of importance, because we will help our country…
“I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected as your 47th president and your 45th president, and every citizen, I will fight for you, for your family and for your future.
“Every day I will fight for you and with every breath in my body, I will not stop until we deliver the strong, safe and prosperous America that our children deserve and that you deserve.
“This will truly be America’s golden age.”
Trump did not mention Harris in his victory speech.
It’s hard to summarize the breadth of stunning moments — from Biden’s last-minute withdrawal over a disastrous debate performance to Trump’s ramping up of misinformation, such as the debunked rumor that immigrants ate cats and dogs in an Ohio town — that marked the campaign.
A little more than a week before Election Day, with the polls on a knife’s edge, Republicans feared that Trump’s potential triumphant rally at Madison Square Garden had hurt his chances with Hispanic voters thanks to the comedian’s joke about Puerto Rico being “trash.”
But it’s hard to look past the 78-year-old’s assassination attempt – and his emerging from a crowd of Secret Service agents with blood dripping from his ear to shout “Fight! Fight! Fight!” — as a defining moment, which came amid growing doubts about Biden’s fitness for office and before Harris’s rejuvenated enthusiasm among Democrats.
On election night, North Carolina was the first swing state to be called, and not long after, Georgia fell the same way – the first state to switch hands in this election since Joe Biden took over in 2020.
At that stage, the Harris campaign was pinning its hopes on a late surge of blue votes to hand the vice president victory and told supporters to prepare for a long recount.
“We knew all along that our clearest path to 270 electoral votes lay through the Blue Wall states (Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan),” campaign manager Jennifer O’Malley Dillon said, adding that “we’ve been saying for weeks that this race might not be called tonight “.
How supporters rallied behind Kamala Harris and Donald Trump
But it didn’t happen again in 2020, when mail-in votes and other ballots counted late gave Biden a big advantage to send him to the White House.
Pennsylvania was called for Trump by several US networks around 2am (6pm AEDT), blocking Harris’ path to victory through the so-called Blue Wall – her last viable route to the White House.
When Wisconsin turned red at around 5.30am (9.30pm AEDT), the gates were completely closed.
Trump also had significant leads in Michigan, Nevada and Arizona, with more than half of the votes counted in those states early Wednesday morning (late Wednesday AEDT).
The Harris campaign said the incumbent vice president would not make a speech until Wednesday (perhaps Thursday morning AEDT).
In addition to claiming North Carolina and holding an edge in swing states, Trump also held a popular vote lead of about 5 million — albeit with many votes from the Democratic stronghold of California yet to be counted.
No Republican has won an election since George W. Bush in 2004.
The news was equally good for Senate Republicans as they flipped at least three seats to guarantee a majority.
The Democrats’ only hope of holding on to some semblance of federal power was the House, where too many seats remained uncalled to predict a winner.
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