The 78-year-old Trump will also become the oldest president ever inaugurated, beating President Joe Biden’s record by five months.
He pulled off his remarkable victory on a night reminiscent of 2016, sweeping the key swing states of North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Associated Press called Wisconsin at 5.34am (ET) Wednesday and the race just three minutes later.
Harris never conceded the race. Instead former Rep. Cedric Richmond – her campaign co-chair – said after midnight Wednesday that the vice president would not be addressing supporters until ‘tomorrow.’
Donald Trump has pulled off an astounding political comeback and regained the White House as he’s declared the winner of the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
He becomes the first president in over 130 years to win a non-consecutive second term. (Pictured: Donald, wife Melania and their son Barron on stage in West Palm Beach as Trump delivered his victory speech on Tuesday night).
The 78-year-old Trump will also become the oldest president ever inaugurated, beating President Joe Biden’s record by five months. (Pictured: Vice President-elect JD Vance on stage in West Palm Beach with Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner).
Trump’s victory brings an end to a tumultuous 2024 campaign – punctuated with Joe Biden’s dramatic withdrawal from the race in July, as well as two shocking attempts on Trump’s life (Trump is pictured after surviving an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania).
His defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris marks a remarkable return for a twice-impeached president.
The pivotal moment came when North Carolina was called for Trump at 11:19pm (ET).
At the same time, the mood at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort – where he was sat amid friends and family watching the results roll in – switched from cautious optimism to ‘a sense of destiny’, one attendee said.
Later at the convention center in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Trump was joined on stage by his jubilant family and campaign staff, as he addressed his adoring fans and declared: ‘We’re going to help our country heal.’
‘This was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time,’ he said. ‘This is a magnificent victory for the American people, that will allow us to make America great again.’
But his inflammatory rhetoric and propensity for personal attacks means he will now lead a divided country that shows little sign of healing.
After announcing he would run again back in November 2022, Trump comfortably saw off other Republican hopefuls – including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley – to secure the Party nomination in March this year.
Entering the summer, he held a comfortable polling lead over President Biden, 81, whose record on the economy and immigration, as well as the obvious problem of his advancing age, were proving disastrous among voters.
On July 13, while addressing crowds at rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the bullet of would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks ripped through Trump’s right ear. After being swarmed by Secret Service agents, Trump rose to his feet – his shoes missing and his face bloodied – pumping his fist in the air and shouting: ‘Fight! Fight! Fight!’
Just days later, he received a hero’s welcome in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the Republican National Convention.
MAGA fans donned mock bandages on their ears in solidarity with the former president and, in a stirring speech on the final night, Trump told a packed-out convention center that he would be a ‘president for all of America’.
On July 13, while addressing crowds at rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the bullet of a would-be assassin ripped through Trump’s right ear. Just days later, he received a hero’s welcome (pictured) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the Republican National Convention.
MAGA fans donned mock bandages on their ears in solidarity with the former president and, in a stirring speech on the final night, Trump told a packed-out convention center that he would be a ‘president for all of America’.
But, just three days later, everything changed. Holed up in Camp David with his family, Biden posted a bombshell letter on X announcing that he was withdrawing from the 2024 race.
Harris then trounced Trump in the first and last TV debate between the pair on September 10. His wild accusation that Haitian migrants were ‘eating the dogs […] eating the cats’ of American citizens was an instant internet meme.
In fact, such was Harris’s surging popularity that a second attempt to assassinate Trump – on his West Palm Beach golf course just days later – barely moved the needle.
Fresh pain came for the Trump campaign as his running mate – and now the Vice President-elect – Ohio Senator JD Vance, was hit by a string of disinterred comments in which he attacked female Democrats.
In the most damning, from a 2021 interview, he called Harris, and other women who don’t have children of their own, ‘childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives’.
Indeed, a gender divide swiftly became a key feature of the 2024 race.
But, just three days later, everything changed. Holed up in Camp David with his family, Biden announced that he was withdrawing from the 2024 race. He endorsed Kamala Harris as his replacement on the Democratic ticket within the hour and she swiftly corralled support, raking in more than $100 million in donor cash in 24 hours.
Fresh pain came for the Trump campaign as JD Vance was hit by a string of disinterred comments in which he attacked female Democrats.
The final ABC/Ipsos poll, published this Sunday, had Harris with an 11-point advantage among women.
Trump, meanwhile, has made substantial inroads with male voters this year. Despite concerns that he and Vance were making the campaign – complete with a shirt-ripping Hulk Hogan – too ‘bro-tastic’, it appears a strong male voter turnout helped Trump clinch it in the end.
In the final days of the campaign, pollsters were almost unanimous in their verdict: this race was too close to call.
Some Trump-friendly analysts, however, pointed to the fact he is consistently under-polled, and that a dead-heat suggested he had the advantage.
Certainly, the immigration crisis on the Southern border, the state of the economy and inflation, as well as the Biden-Harris administration’s record on foreign affairs – from the botched Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021, to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and the outbreak of war in Israel last year – all worked in Trump’s favor.
Following his victory, Trump must now prepare for government once again, undoubtedly drawing from a band of MAGA loyalists who have stuck with him through roiling controversies.
In 2016, he brought in officials from the Republican National Committee as well as from the armed forces who were seen as moderating influences.
This time around, he controls the RNC with his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, at the helm. Meanwhile, military officers who served in his first administration, such as his Chief of Staff, General John Kelly, have warned Trump is not fit for office.
Trump’s opponents fear his new administration will be packed with extremists who will empower the president to do as he pleases.
Following his victory, Trump must now prepare for government once again. In 2016, he brought in officials from the Republican National Committee as well as from the armed forces who were seen as moderating influences. (Trump is pictured at the RNC in July with Melania).
This time around, he controls the RNC with his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump (pictured with husband Eric in October), at the helm.
Despite concerns that he and Vance were making the campaign too ‘bro-tastic’, it appears a strong male voter turnout helped Trump clinch it in the end. (Trump’s son Barron is pictured at a rally on July 9).
Trump’s opponents fear his new administration will be packed with extremists who will empower the president to do as he pleases. He has promised Elon Musk (left) a role in the administration, aimed at reducing government waste. Trump also promised RFK (right) a major health role.
On day one in 2017, Trump immediately signed an executive order banning travel from seven mostly Muslim countries.
Despite the ignominy of those Jan 6 riots and his false ‘stolen vote’ claims after Biden narrowly defeated him in 2020, the American public have softened their opinion on his first term over the last four years, choosing instead to remember the strong economy and secure borders that he oversaw.
Boldly launching his campaign on the back of unexpectedly disappointing 2022 midterm results for Republicans, it was Trump’s sheer force of personality that ultimately saw him grip the party’s grassroots and surge back to unshakeable public prominence.
Tim Murtaugh, Team Trump’s communications chief, told the Daily Mail that the key moment came in closing hours of the race, when Trump donned an apron and manned the fry station at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania last month.
Despite the ignominy of the Jan 6 riots (pictured) and Trump’s false ‘stolen vote’ claims after Biden narrowly defeated him in 2020, the American public have softened their opinion on his first term over the last four years.
Tim Murtaugh, Team Trump’s communications chief, told the Daily Mail that the key moment came in closing hours of the race, when Trump donned an apron and manned the fry station at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania last month (pictured).
It was Trump’s sheer force of personality that ultimately saw him grip the party’s grassroots and surge back to unshakeable public prominence. (Donald and Melania, pictured as he is sworn in as the 45th president in 2017).
‘It wasn’t necessarily the act of making French fries or running the drive-thru window,’ he said.
The McDonald’s stunt was meant to be unadvertised, but a local paper got hold of the details and published a story, bringing out a spontaneous crowd.
In the end, an equally spontaneous and sizeable voter turnout – both in early ballots and on Election Day itself – buoyed Trump to victory and kick-started a second term that no doubt will be as dramatic and consequential as the first.
