Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States after defeating Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
His historic victory makes him the first convicted felon to be president, oldest person elected to the office and the first leader to return to the White House since Grover Cleveland in 1892.
It’s an extraordinary comeback for the man who refused to accept his defeat to President Joe Biden in 2020, sparked a violent insurrection and survived being shot in an attempted assassination.
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History also beckoned for Harris, the first woman of colour to lead a major party ticket, who became the second Democrat woman in a row to lose to the billionaire.
In the end a dramatically polarised America chose Trump – who attacked his opponent with personal insults while promising to take a historically harsh line on immigration – over Harris, who sought to convince voters to “turn the page” with a more positive message but appeared unable to shake their blame for her role in the Biden administration’s failure to adequately tackle the cost-of-living crisis.
The Republican candidate claimed the two crucial swing states of North Carolina and Georgia about 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 sunrise approached in the US (about 9.30pm AEDT) and he maintained leads in fellow battlegrounds Michigan, Arizona and Nevada, raising the prospect of a red sweep of the seven states that were expected to decide the election.
Shortly after Pennsylvania was called, and close to 3am local time, Trump addressed his supporters in Florida to claim victory.
“This was a movement like nobody’s ever seen before, and frankly, this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time,” he said.
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“There’s never been anything like this in this country, and maybe beyond.
“And now it’s going to reach a new level of importance, because we’re going to help our country …
“I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honour of being elected your 47th president and your 45th president, and every citizen, I will fight for you, for your family and your future.
“Every single day, I will be fighting for you and with every breath in my body, I will not rest until we have delivered the strong, safe and prosperous America that our children deserve and that you deserve.
“This will truly be the golden age of America.”
Trump did not mention Harris in his victory speech.
It is difficult to encapsulate the full breadth of astonishing moments – from Biden’s last-minute dropout out on the back of a disastrous debate performance to Trump’s amplification of misinformation, such as the disproven rumour immigrants were eating cats and dogs in an Ohio town – that marked the campaign.
A little more than a week out from election day, with polls on a knife’s edge, Republicans feared Trump’s would-be triumphant rally at Madison Square Garden had hurt his chances with Latino voters thanks to a comedian’s joke about Puerto Rico being ”garbage”.
But it’s hard to look past the 78-year-old’s attempted assassination – and his emergence from a throng of Secret Service agents with blood dripping from his ear to shout “Fight! Fight! Fight!” – as a defining moment, coming as it did amid soaring doubts over Biden’s fitness for office and before Harris’ rejuvenated enthusiasm among Democrats.
On election night, North Carolina was the first swing state to be called, and shortly afterwards Georgia fell the same way – the first state to change hands this election after Joe Biden took it in 2020.
At that stage, the Harris campaign had pinned its hopes on a late rush of blue votes to hand the vice president victory, and told supporters to prepare for a long count.
“We have known all along that our clearest path to 270 electoral votes lies through the Blue Wall states (Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan),” campaign chair Jennifer O’Malley Dillon said, adding that “we’ve been saying for weeks that this race might not be called tonight”.
But a repeat of 2020, when postal votes and other ballots counted late overwhelmingly favoured Biden to send him to the White House, didn’t eventuate.
Pennsylvania was called for Trump by several US networks about 2am (6pm AEDT), blocking Harris’ path to victory through the so-called Blue Wall – her last viable route to the White House.
When Wisconsin went red about 5.30am (9.30pm AEDT), the door was shut completely.
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Trump also held significant leads in Michigan, Nevada and Arizona, with more than half of the vote counted in those states early on Wednesday morning (late Wednesday AEDT).
Harris’ campaign said the current vice president would not give a speech until Wednesday (possibly Thursday morning AEDT).
In addition to claiming North Carolina and holding an edge in the swing states, Trump also held a lead in the popular vote of about 5 million – albeit with many votes from the Democratic stronghold of California still to be counted.
No Republican has won the popular vote since George W Bush in 2004.
The news was just as good for Republicans in the Senate as they flipped at least three seats to guarantee a majority.
Democrats’ only hope of hanging on to some semblance of federal power was the House, where too many seats remained uncalled to project a winner.