Trump defeats Harris to win the White House return

Four years after he was voted out of office, Donald Trump triumphed in the presidential election, concluding an incredible comeback and bringing in a new American leadership that will probably put both American democratic institutions and ties overseas to the test.

After two attempts on his life and a late Democratic decision to field Kamala Harris after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race in July, Trump, 78, regained the White House on Wednesday following a campaign characterized by dire rhetoric that widened the nation’s rift.

At approximately 6 p.m. (2300 GMT), Harris, the U.S. vice president, will make a speech in which he concedes the election to Trump, two sources told Reuters.

With his triumph in Wisconsin, a swing state, the former president exceeded the 270 Electoral College votes required to win the office. Trump has 279 electoral votes to Harris’ 223 as of 8 a.m. ET (1300 GMT), according to Edison Research, with a number of states still to be counted.

In addition, he had over 5 million more votes than Harris in the popular vote.

“America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,” Trump declared in front of a boisterous gathering of supporters at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in Florida early on Wednesday.

Trump won in spite of his consistently low approval ratings. He has been impeached twice, charged with crimes four times, and found civilly liable for slander and sexual abuse. A New York jury found Trump guilty in May of concealing hush money payments to a porn star by fabricating business papers.

In an unsuccessful attempt to overturn his 2020 loss, Trump’s followers stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, accusing him of electoral fraud, seemingly ending his political career.

However, by leveraging voter fears about high costs and Trump’s unsubstantiated allegation that illegal immigration was increasing crime, he swept away opponents inside his Republican Party and defeated Democratic nominee Harris.

Supporters had gathered at Howard University, Harris’ alma mater, but she did not address them.

Although Republicans secured a majority in the U.S. Senate, neither party seemed to have a competitive advantage in the struggle for control of the House of Representatives, where Republicans presently have a slim lead.

Trump’s victory sparked a rally in major global financial markets, and the dollar was poised for its largest one-day spike since 2020.

Employment and Economics

According to opinion polls conducted by Reuters and Ipsos, voters ranked the economy and jobs as the nation’s top issues. In the face of record-high stock markets, rapidly rising wages, and low unemployment, many Americans continued to be irritated by rising costs.

Much of the blame was placed on the Biden administration, and most voters said they trusted Trump more than Harris to solve the problem.

Inflation-affected lower-income households, Hispanic votes, and typically Democratic supporters all contributed to Trump’s election triumph. Once more, his devoted base of white, rural, and less educated supporters turned out in force.

Trump was praised by world leaders from Europe to Asia, and his win will have a significant impact on U.S. trade and climate change policy, the war in Ukraine, American taxation, and immigration.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised Trump’s pledge to “peace through strength,” but the Kremlin declared it would wait to see if his win might hasten the conclusion of the conflict in Ukraine. Trump claimed he could do the in a day during his campaign.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, declared Trump’s triumph “history’s greatest comeback” on Wednesday. Netanyahu has been at odds with the Biden administration over the wars in Gaza and Lebanon. Although the Palestinian militant organization Hamas claimed that the election was a matter for the American people, it demanded that the US stop its “blind support” of Israel.

An adviser predicted that Trump would take calls from a range of foreign leaders who had asked to speak with him.

Trump’s promises to lower corporate taxes and enact a series of additional cuts could cause the U.S. debt to skyrocket, according to economists, while his tariff ideas could lead to a more intense trade war with China and U.S. allies.

A huge deportation effort targeting illegal immigrants is what Trump has pledged to start.

He has declared his desire to have the power to dismiss federal personnel whom he believes to be disloyal. His detractors worry that he would use the Justice Department and other federal law enforcement organizations as political tools to look into those who they consider to be his enemies.

A second Trump administration would further polarize Democrats and Republicans on topics like reproductive rights, gender, ethnicity, and what and how children are educated.

HARRIS IS SHORT

Harris failed to rally enough support to topple Trump, who held the White House from 2017 to 21, or to ease Americans’ anxieties about immigration and the economy during her brief 15-week campaign.

Trump desired unbridled presidential power and was a threat to democracy, Harris had warned.

In a country whose divisions have only became more pronounced throughout a highly competitive race, nearly three-quarters of voters believe that American democracy is in danger, according to exit polls conducted by Edison Research.

The rhetoric used by Trump during his campaign was apocalyptic. He referred to the US as a “garbage can” for immigration, promised to prevent “obliteration” of the economy, and portrayed some competitors as the “enemy within.”

Harris, whom he regularly criticized as being stupid, and migrants, whom he claimed were “poisoning the blood of the country,” were subjects of his tirades.

Only two previous presidents have won a second term after leaving the White House, including Trump, despite his legal troubles and scandals. In the late nineteenth century, Grover Cleveland was the first, serving two four-year terms.

UNPRECEDENTED ADVERTIZE

An assassin’s bullet grazed Trump’s right ear during a July campaign rally in Pennsylvania, two months after he was found guilty in the hush money case, adding to concerns about political violence.

In September, a second attempt on his life was foiled at his golf course in Florida. Trump accused Democrats, including Harris, of using inflammatory language in both attempts.

Only eight days after the July shooting, Biden, 81, eventually gave in to criticism from his fellow Democrats after a dismal debate performance against Trump raised doubts about his mental health and the feasibility of his reelection campaign.

When Biden resigned, the race became a sprint, with Harris rushing to launch her own campaign in only a few weeks instead of the usual months. In less than three months, she raised almost $1 billion and erased what had been a strong Trump advantage in surveys, reviving dejected Democrats with her ascent to the top of the ticket.

Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, intervened to somewhat offset Harris’ financial advantage. Musk invested over $100 million in a super PAC that mobilized Trump supporters and used his social media platform X to spread pro-Trump messages.

As the campaign came to an end, Harris made a greater effort to warn the public about the dangers of Trump being reelected and to extend an olive branch to disgruntled Republicans.

John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general and former Trump chief of staff, was among the former Trump officials she cited for calling Trump a “fascist.”

According to Alan Abramowitz, a political science professor at Emory University who specializes in voter behavior and party politics, Trump’s triumph would deepen rifts in American society because of his baseless accusations of election fraud, anti-immigrant rhetoric, and demonization of his political rivals.

SECOND TERM FOR TRUMP

Trump has pledged to restructure the executive branch, which includes utilizing federal law enforcement agencies to look into his political rivals and dismissing civil workers he believes to be disloyal—a move that goes against the long-standing rule that these agencies should remain independent.

Trump’s most radical requests throughout his first term were occasionally thwarted by his own cabinet members. This was particularly true when Vice President Mike Pence declined to stop Congress from accepting the results of the 2020 election.

Trump is scheduled to assume office on January 20th, Inauguration Day, along with U.S. Senator JD Vance, his incoming vice president. When it comes to staffing his government, Trump has indicated that he will put personal loyalty first. Both ardent backers, Musk and former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., were offered positions in his government.