Listen here on your chosen podcast platform.
Donald Trump won what he called a “magnificent victory” on Wednesday over Kamala Harris after clinching pivotal battleground states at the climax of the most dramatic White House election campaign in generations.
Addressing jubilant supporters in Florida, the former president said “we made history” and claimed “an unprecedented and powerful mandate” after he was projected to have won in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Georgia, and after the Republicans reclaimed control of the Senate.
Trump had secured 277 votes in the Electoral College - seven more than needed to stage an improbable comeback four years after he was beaten by Joe Biden. Vice President Harris was trailing on 224 votes, according to the latest tally.
The Democrat failed to emerge overnight at her own gathering at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington DC, as disconsolate supporters trailed home early. She was due to deliver a concession speech around 2300 GMT later on Wednesday, campaign sources said.
Trump also claimed victory in 2020, falsely and prematurely, and he went on to incite a mob that rioted to try to stop Congress certifying his defeat.
This time, however, the numbers were with the Republican after a campaign dominated by voters’ unhappiness with years of high prices and falling wages.
Trump was also ahead in three other swing states - Arizona, Michigan and Nevada - as well as in staunchly Republican Alaska.
After a campaign and political career dominated by division and acrimony, Trump told his cheering audience in West Palm Beach that it was "time to unite" as a country.
"It's time to put the divisions of the past four years behind us," he said, joined by a large cast on stage including his family and running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance. "We have to put our country first for at least a period of time. We have to fix it."
Referring to the two assassination attempts against him during the campaign, Trump said he had been saved by God for a reason.
He added: “And every citizen, I will fight for you, for your family and your future, every single day I will be fighting for you 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, that’s what we have to have.”
Foreign leaders including Ukraine’s and Israel’s accepted Trump’s declaration. Sir Keir Starmer bid to overcome tension after the Labour party had advertised for volunteers to campaign for Harris.
The Prime Minister said: “Congratulations President-elect Trump on your historic election victory. I look forward to working with you in the years ahead.
“As the closest of allies, we stand shoulder to shoulder in defence of our shared values of freedom, democracy and enterprise,” Sir Keir added.
“From growth and security to innovation and tech, I know that the UK-US special relationship will continue to prosper on both sides of the Atlantic for years to come.”
Security was reinforced at counting centres across the United States, with extra police deployed and National Guard troops on standby, given the threat of violence from Trump’s extremist fans after his false claims in 2020 and that only fraud could stop him winning this time.
Before Trump and Harris holed up with their supporters to watch the results, tens of millions of Americans had added their ballots to the 84 million cast early as they chose between radically different visions for the country.
In a campaign defined by the economy, reproductive rights and immigration, exit polls showed women broke decisively for Harris, who was bidding to be America’s first female commander-in-chief and warned that a second Trump term would be defined by revenge from a would-be dictator against his opponents.
But male voters mirrored the gender split among women, backing Trump by the same margin of 54% to 44%, after the Republican vowed to bring “new heights of glory” to the United States with an isolationist foreign policy, tax cuts and mass deportations of illegal immigrants.
Overall, Harris significantly lagged President Biden’s performance against Trump in 2020.
Black voters were overwhelmingly in favour of the mixed-race Harris (86% to 12%), but that was a smaller margin than built by Biden in 2020 and Barack Obama in elections before that.
Her lead among Hispanic voters was far narrower (53% to 45%). In 2020, Biden won the Hispanic vote by 32 points.
The 81-year-old Biden’s shock withdrawal from this year’s race, after a series of gaffes culminating in a disastrous debate against Trump, upended the campaign when Harris, 60, stepped in to take up the Democratic mantle in July.
Before and after that, the assassination attempts against Trump, 78, elevated the former president to martyr status among his devoted supporters.
The Republicans were projected to have won back the Senate, which has the power to free up or block a president’s agenda, with Bernie Moreno defeating incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown in Ohio.
Trump also expressed confidence that the Republicans would retain control of the House of Representatives, offering the prospect of unalloyed power for the former president on his return to the White House in January, eight years after his surprise defeat of Hillary Clinton.
He won the Electoral College in 2016 despite trailing Clinton by about three million ballots in the national popular vote.
This time, the Trump-Vance campaign earned further bragging rights by amassing more than 71 million votes as of 1600 GMT on Wednesday, some five million more than Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz.
