Posted on November 7, 2024
Donald Trump has been elected as the 47th president of the United States on a day of extraordinary comeback for a former president who denied defeat four years ago, incited violence in a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts.
Trump broke past the 270 electoral votes to win with a victory in Wisconsin. He also won the swing states of Michigan Wednesday afternoon that and Pennsylvania — once Democrat-leaning, but which supported the Republicans in 2016 before switching to President Joe Biden in 2020.
His Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, had called Trump Wednesday afternoon to concede the race and congratulate him. Shortly after that, Biden also called Trump to congratulate him and invite the president-elect to the White House, formally launching the transition ahead of Inauguration Day, the White House said. Harris was also on the phone line.
Foreign leaders called Trump too, among them Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and French President Emmanuel Macron.
It vindicated Trump’s bare-knuckles approach to politics. He assaulted Harris in depressingly personal – often misogynistic and racist – terms as he peddled an apocalyptic view of a country overrun with violent migrants. Such coarse rhetoric, combined with an image of hypermasculinity, must have resonated with angry voters – in this case, very much men – in a country markedly polarized.
“I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected your 47th president and your 45th president,” Trump told cheering crowds in Florida even before his victory was confirmed.
In state after state, Trump did better than he did in the 2020 election while Harris failed to do as well as Joe Biden did four years ago in winning the presidency. As Trump takes office once more, he will work with a Senate that now falls under Republican control whereas control of the House was still up for grabs at time of writing.
“We have been through a lot together, and today you showed up in record numbers to deliver victory,” Trump said. This was something special and we’re going to pay you back, he said.
The U.S. stock market, Elon Musk’s Tesla, banks and bitcoin all stormed higher Wednesday as investors looked favorably on a smooth election and Trump returning to the White House. In his second term, Trump has vowed to pursue an agenda centered on dramatically reshaping the federal government and pursuing retribution against his perceived enemies.
The result caps a historically tumultuous and competitive election season that has seen two assassination attempts targeting Mr. Trump and a shifting focus to a new Democratic nominee just a month ahead of the party’s convention. Trump will inherit a variety of challenges when he takes office on January 20, ranging from heightened political polarization on campus to global crises that are testing America’s influence abroad.