Trump Declares Victory

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.—Former President Donald Trump is the projected winner of the 2024 presidential election, according to the Associated Press.

The president-elect won the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, while leading comfortably in Michigan and Nevada.

By the time Trump took the stage at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, Republicans had already captured the U.S. Senate with victories in Ohio and West Virginia. Further buttressing his mandate, the former president was also on track to win the national popular vote.

“God spared my life for a reason,” Trump said referring to the assassination attempts on his life.

“This was a movement like nobody has ever seen before, and frankly, this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time. There’s never been anything like this in this country,” Trump said.

“We’re going to help our country heal. We have a country that needs help, and it needs help very badly. We’re going to fix our borders. We’re going to fix everything about our country.”

Earlier in the night, as Trump supporters gathered at his watch party in Florida, Cedric Richmond, co-chair of the Harris–Walz campaign took the stage in Washington, D.C., to inform the crowd that the vice president won’t be speaking that night.

“We still have votes to count. We still have states that haven’t been called yet,” Richmond said. “We want to fight to make sure that every vote is counted, that every voice has spoken, so you won’t hear from the vice president tonight.”

Exit polls by Edison Research showed Trump making significant gains with Hispanic Americans and younger voters.

As the Trump transition team prepares to take the White House, Americans can expect major changes in how the U.S. government handles foreign affairs, tax policy, and illegal immigration.

Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine before Inauguration Day and to launch the largest illegal immigrant deportation operation in U.S. history. As president, Trump will have the power to achieve both without the help of Congress. The same goes for rolling back the tailpipe emissions rule, which Republicans call a de-facto electric vehicle mandate.

The president-elect will have to work with Congress to deliver on some of his other promises, including ending taxes on tips, overtime pay, and Social Security income and expanding the child tax credit. Other provisions in his tax plan include reducing corporate taxes from 21 percent to 15 percent, maintaining lower individual taxes, and permanently expanding the $2,000 child tax credit.

On the campaign trail, Trump has floated the idea of ending taxation altogether and funding the government through tariffs on foreign goods. He has singled out China for 60 percent import tariffs and, a day before the general election, said he would threaten Mexico with a 25 percent tariff to get the southern neighbor’s help in stemming the flow of illegal immigrants.

The president-elect plans to tackle inflation by increasing American energy production, cutting wasteful government spending, and preventing illegal immigration. He has pledged to again exit the Paris Agreement on climate action, increase oil drilling on public lands, and offer tax breaks to oil, gas, and coal producers. He also discussed a comprehensive government reform initiative, seeking collaboration with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to improve Americans’ health and with billionaire Elon Musk to reduce government waste.

Trump’s win makes him only the second president in American history to reclaim the office after losing his first bid for reelection. Grover Cleveland was the first president who won a second nonconsecutive term in 1892 after losing in 1888.

But the president-elect’s comeback story is perhaps unprecedented. During the final days of his term, and after leaving the White House in 2021, Trump was banned from several social media platforms, impeached for the second time by the House of Representatives, had his residence raided by federal agents, defended against several indictments on the state and federal levels, had his mugshot taken at a Georgia jail, and survived two assassination attempts. But despite the series of calamities, he ran a disciplined campaign, took control of the Republican National Committee, beat Republican fundraising records, and made gains with part of the electorate long-aligned with the Democrats.

Pollsters predicted a tight race leading up to Election Day. In the final weeks of the presidential campaign, Trump edged ahead of Harris in some battleground states.

While Trump was predicted to easily win the Sun Belt states—Georgia, North Carolina, and Arizona—his chances were considered lower in the so-called “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. He has made incremental gains in Nevada since 2016, and the state was up for grabs, based on polling averages on Nov. 5.

Polls showed that Harris had strong support from suburban women and voters with college degrees. Meanwhile, Trump had a significant advantage in rural areas and among non-college-educated white men. The Republican candidate gained support among younger voters, as well as black and Latino men.