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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Helen Sullivan (now and earlier); Sam Levin, Chris Stein and Amy Sedghi

Putin commends Trump victory – as it happened

Donald Trump Susie Wiles Daniel Lurie Julia Brownley Kari Lake London Breed Titus The Associated Press Derrick Johnson Susie Lee
Donald Trump praises Susie Wiles during an election night event in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Donald Trump praises Susie Wiles during an election night event in West Palm Beach, Florida. Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

This blog is closing now, thanks for following along. You can find all of the latest US elections stories here.

The NAACP on Thursday condemned racist text messages referencing slavery that were sent anonymously to Black Americans this week as a contentious election was coming to an end in the United States.

The messages urged recipients in multiple states, including Alabama, North Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, to report to a plantation to pick cotton, the NAACP said in a statement.

The FBI said on Thursday it was in touch with the US justice department and other federal authorities about the “offensive and racist messages”.

“These actions are not normal. And we refuse to let them be normalized,” NAACP president Derrick Johnson said in a statement from the organization, which advocates for racial justice and rights for Black Americans.

High school and college students were among the recipients, the Associated Press reported.

Johnson said the messages were a reflection of Donald Trump’s presidential election victory on Tuesday.

Updated

The Arizona supreme court has declined to hear Republican Kari Lake’s latest appeal over her defeat in the 2022 governor’s race, marking yet another loss in her attempt to overturn the race’s outcome, the Associated Press reports.

The court made its refusal to take up the former TV anchor’s appeal public on Thursday without explaining its decision.

Lake, now locked in a US Senate race against Democrat Ruben Gallego, had lost the governor’s race to Democrat Katie Hobbs by over 17,000 votes.

The courts had previously rejected Lake’s claims that problems with ballot printers at some Maricopa county polling places on election day in 2022 were the result of intentional misconduct and that Maricopa county didn’t verify signatures on mail ballots as required by law.

A judge also turned down Lake’s request to examine the ballot envelopes of 1.3 million early voters. In all, Lake had three trials related to the 2022 election.

Updated

San Francisco’s first Black female mayor, London Breed, conceded the race for mayor to Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie on Thursday, pledging a smooth transition as he takes over the job.

Breed, who was raised by her grandmother in public housing, could not overcome deep voter discontent and was trailing Lurie, a philanthropist and anti-poverty nonprofit founder.

“At the end of the day, this job is bigger than any one person and what matters is that we keep moving this city forward,” Breed said, adding that she had called Lurie to congratulate him.

“I know we are both committed to improving this city we love.”

The Associated Press has not yet declared a winner because tens of thousand of ballots have not yet been counted and added to the ranked choice voting calculations.

Updated

In a profile, Politico describes Trump’s new chief of staff, Susie Wiles, as a “force more sensed than seen”, crediting her as the reason the former president’s latest campaign has been “more professional than its fractious, seat-of-the-pants antecedents”.

My colleague Maanvi Singh writes:

Wiles is a veteran of Florida politics who led Trump’s 2016 campaign in the state. She also worked with Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott, Florida’s current and former governors. The Trump campaign had fired her after a falling out with DeSantis, but brought her back for the 2020 campaign in the state.

A self-described moderate, Wiles has also been credited – by Trump’s allies and opponents – as the person who has given him the discipline and focus to succeed politically. She has been known to keep good relationships with reporters, and holds a wealth of knowledge about all aspects of running a campaign.

Some have also described her as an enabler of Trump’s dictatorial ambitions. “Susie Wiles is way too smart of a human being and way too sophisticated a political operator to not understand,” Fernand Amandi, a Miami-based Democratic pollster and MSNBC analyst, told Politico.

Wiles has little experience in Washington, however, aside from working in the Ronald Regan administration as a scheduler at the labor department and on Capitol Hill for the late congressman Jack Kemp.

During Trump’s first term, the president had a series of chiefs of staff: Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus, General John Kelly, former South Carolina representative Mick Mulvaney and former North Carolina representative Mark Meadows.

The former president often disagreed with or tired of his appointees. In the weeks before the election, Kelly, the retired marine general, notably said that Trump fits “into the general definition of fascist”.

Updated

Democrat Julia Brownley re-elected to House

Democratic Julia Brownley has won re-election to a US House seat representing California, the Associated Press reports.

Brownley, who previously served in the state assembly for six years, was first elected to the House in 2012. Before her political career, she worked in marketing and sales. Brownley’s district comprises a small part of Los Angeles County and most of Ventura County, including the cities of Oxnard, Santa Paula, Thousand Oaks and Moorpark.

She defeated Republican Michael Koslow. The Associated Press declared Brownley the winner at 8.31pm ET.

Updated

Who is Susie Wiles?

Here is our full profile of Susie Wiles, who was named Donald Trump’s new White House chief of staff, by Maanvi Singh:

Wiles will be the first woman in history to serve in the role as gatekeeper to the president, a position that typically wields great influence.

The chief of staff position is usually the first appointee that a president-elect names, and may oversee the transition from one administration. Once Trump is sworn in as president, Wiles will also be in charge of all White House policy, serving as a confidante and adviser and managing day-to-day affairs.

Wiles, 67, is a veteran of Florida politics who ran Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns in the state and served as his “de facto chief of staff” over the last three years to lead his successful re-election bid and helped him work with lawyers on his various criminal and civil cases.

“Susie Wiles just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history, and was an integral part of both my 2016 and 2020 successful campaigns,” Trump said in a statement. “Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected.”

Trump also mentioned her in his victory speech in Palm Beach, Florida. “Susie likes to stay sort of in the back, let me tell you. The Ice Maiden. We call her the Ice Maiden,” he said.

Updated

The Biden administration has confirmed that the US will continue the surge of aid to Ukraine before Donald Trump becomes president in January. “That’s not going to change. We’re going to surge and get that out there to Ukraine. We understand how important it is to make sure they have what they need,” said Karine Jean-Pierre, White House spokesperson.

A Guardian editorial on US aid to Ukraine says: “The Biden administration is reportedly attempting to expedite as much as $9bn worth of military aid, agreed but not yet transferred. This is far from straightforward, not least because weaponry and ammunition are still being produced and because the next president could stop agreed shipments. But it is essential.”

Updated

After years of negative headlines and post-pandemic economic struggle, San Francisco has picked a wealthy Democratic outsider with no government experience to serve as the city’s new mayor.

Daniel Lurie, 47, is one of the heirs to the Levi Strauss jeans company fortune, and previously spent 15 years as the executive of a San Francisco non-profit he founded. He defeated several Democratic challengers, including the current mayor, London Breed, in an election that was expected to break local campaign spending records.

Lurie poured more than $8m of his own money into his campaign, while his billionaire mother, Mimi Haas, backed him with another $1m. He will be the first San Francisco mayor since 1911 to win office without previously serving in government, making him the city’s “least experienced mayor in a long time”, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Updated

In 2021, Democrats sacrificed part of Titus’s district – the party’s traditional stronghold – in exchange for some gains in neighboring swing districts.

Titus, the longest-serving member of the Nevada delegation in Washington DC, has been re-elected every two years since winning her seat in 2013. Robertson, her opponent this year, has never held political office and echoed policies favored by Trump on border security, inflation and the economy.

Horsford, meanwhile, became the first Black person to represent Nevada in Congress when he was elected to the House in 2012. He lost in 2014 but has since won in four straight elections.

Susie Lee first won her seat in 2018, succeeding now Democratic senator Jacky Rosen.

AP hasn’t yet declared a winner in the race for Rosen’s seat in the upper chamber of Congress. It pits her against Republican Sam Brown, a retired army captain whose face is still scarred from injuries he suffered in Afghanistan.

Updated

Johnson said in a statement he was proud of the race he ran, and that he was encouraged by Trump’s decisive victory, the AP reports.

John Lee, in a brief phone call with AP, also said he ran a good race and was now “looking forward to Trump bringing this nation back around.”

Robertson, meanwhile, told AP he had called Titus to congratulate her, saying he respected the will of Nevada voters and that he and Titus spoke about possibly working together “on a future issue”.

Updated

Democrats retain three US House seats in Nevada

Three US House seats in Nevada will remain under Democratic control after a sweeping win Thursday for the incumbents, while the state’s tight Senate race was still too early to call.

The Associated Press has declared Democratic Representatives Dina Titus, Susie Lee and Steven Horsford winners in their respective races. The state’s lone Republican Congressman, Mark Amodei, cruised to victory Tuesday night in his reliably red district in northern Nevada.

Lee won over conservative policy analyst Drew Johnson in what is widely considered the state’s most competitive district, which covers a large swath of the culturally diverse Spring Valley neighborhood in Las Vegas and more rural areas of southern Nevada.

Horsford, a four-term congressman who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, defeated former North Las Vegas mayor John Lee in a district that stretches north from Las Vegas, toward rural Nye county in the west and along the Utah border in the eastern portion of the district.

For Titus, it was the second election in a row that she defeated Republican Mark Robertson, a retired army colonel, to keep her seat in the Las Vegas district she has represented for more than a decade.

All three incumbents, in separate statements, vowed to continue their work to lower costs in the state and to create more jobs. Their challengers conceded Thursday.

Updated

David McCormick wins Pennsylvania Senate seat

David McCormick is thanking voters in a brief statement after the Associated Press called the race for him in his bid to oust three-term Democrat Bob Casey.

On social media, the former CEO of the world’s largest hedge fund, said: “Thank you, Pennsylvania! Looking forward to representing every citizen of our great commonwealth.”

The victory pads Republicans’ majority in the Senate, which they wrested from Democratic control this week, and clocked in as the nation’s second-most expensive race.

Casey isn’t conceding. His campaign’s pointing to a statement from the state’s top election official saying that at least 100,000 ballots still remained to be counted, including provisional ballots and military and overseas ballots.

Casey’s campaign says it’ll “make sure every Pennsylvanian’s voice is heard”.

Updated

Here is more on Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff:

Trump has named Susie Wiles, the manager of his victorious campaign, as his White House chief of staff, the first woman to hold the influential role.

Wiles is widely credited within and outside Trump’s inner circle for running what was, by far, his most disciplined and well-executed campaign, and was seen as the leading contender for the position. She largely avoided the spotlight, even refusing to take the mic to speak as Trump celebrated his victory early on Wednesday morning.

Wiles’s hire is Trump’s first major decision as president-elect and one that could be a defining test of his incoming administration, as he must quickly build the team that will help run the federal government. Wiles does not bring government experience to the role, but has a close relationship with the president-elect.

She was able to do what few others have been able to: help control Trump’s impulses – not by chiding him or lecturing, but by earning his respect and showing him that he was better off when he followed her advice than flouting it.

“Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again,” Trump said in a statement. “It is a well deserved honor to have Susie as the first-ever female Chief of Staff in United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud.”

Trump went through four chiefs of staff – including one who served in an acting capacity for a year – during his first administration, part of record-setting personnel churn in his administration.

Updated

JD Vance has posted his thoughts on Trump’s chief of staff pick, Susie Wiles, calling her a “huge asset” and “a really good person”:

California ‘Trump-proofing’ itself against federal reprisal

California prided itself on its resistance to Donald Trump during his first term as president and will hardly have to scramble to assume the same role a second time around.

Indeed, as a bastion of Democratic party strength in a country moving sharply to the right, it has been preparing for this moment for a long time.

“California will continue to be at the forefront of progress, the fulcrum of democracy, the champion of innovation, and the protector of our rights and freedoms,” Adam Schiff, the state’s newly elected senator and a frequent target of Trump’s wrath, promised supporters on election night.

On Thursday, Gavin Newsom announced a special session of the California legislature to ensure the attorney general’s office and other state agencies have the funding they need. “We won’t sit idle,” the governor said. “California has faced this challenge before, and we know how to respond.”

Even with Trump out of power since 2021, California has been setting up guardrails to protect its resident’s rights under an adversarial federal government. The state has enshrined abortion rights in its constitution, passed a ballot initiative explicitly defending the right of same-sex couples to marry and pushed for tougher gun laws that still adhere to the supreme court’s narrow interpretation of the right to bear arms.

More here:

The US secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, has urged the military to carry out a smooth transition to Donald Trump, reminding the force of its responsibility to follow the lawful orders of the next commander in chief, AP reports.

Memos of this kind are not common, but it’s not the first time the Pentagon chief has reminded the military of its constitutional obligations, the AP says, noting, “In the context of the incoming president’s suggestion that he may use federal forces at the southern border, and Project 2025 plans to force out career civilians and fill positions with Trump loyalists, the Biden administration has taken unusual steps both to try to insulate those civil servants and to remind the military of its own sworn oaths.”

Who is Susie Wiles, Donald Trump's new chief of staff?

Wiles, announced today as Trump’s new chief of staff, is a veteran political operative who has been in the president-elect’s orbit for years.

The 67-year-old, who will be the first woman to be chief of staff for a US president, is the daughter of the late NFL broadcaster Pat Summerall and one of Trump’s longest-serving advisers, CNN noted. She ran his Florida campaigns in 2020 and 2016 and served as a “de facto chief of staff” over the last four years as she helped lead his successful re-election bid.

She has been repeatedly credited for his win this week and Trump directly praised her in his victory speech, but she declined to take the mic and comment.

Before supporting Trump, she ran Rick Scott’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign in Florida and briefly served as campaign manager of former Utah governor Jon Huntsman’s presidential bid in 2012, the AP reported.

Trump defended Wiles in September when there were concerns that the campaign was flailing and he repeatedly expressed faith in her amid reports of an internal power struggle.

Trump’s first term was marked by significant turnover, including four chiefs of staff. John Kelly, Trump’s longest serving chief of staff during his first administration, spent the final weeks of this year’s election warning that his former boss was a “fascist” who had privately and repeatedly praised Hitler.

Updated

Trump announces Susie Wiles as chief of staff

Donald Trump has announced that Susie Wiles, co-manager of his re-election campaign, will be his chief of staff:

Susie Wiles just helped me achieve one of the greatest political victories in American history, and was an integral part of both my 2016 and 2020 successful campaigns … Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America great again. It is a well deserved honor to have Susie as the first-ever female chief of staff in United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud.”

Wiles is a veteran operative who is seen as playing an integral part in Trump’s successful bid to reclaim the White House.

Updated

Summary

If you’re just catching up on the latest developments two days after Donald Trump’s decisive victory, here are some key updates from the day so far:

Updated

Democratic incumbent Bob Casey not conceding in Pennsylvania

Even though the Associated Press has called the Pennsylvania Senate race for Republican Dave McCormick, the campaign of Bob Casey is not yet conceding.

A spokesperson for Casey insisted that thousands of ballots remained uncounted as of Thursday, when McCormick led the race by 0.5 points.

“As the Pennsylvania secretary of state said this afternoon, there are tens of thousands of ballots across the Commonwealth still to count, which includes provisional ballots, military and overseas ballots and mail ballots,” Maddy McDaniel, Casey spokesperson, said in a new statement.

“This race is within half a point and cannot be called while the votes of thousands of Pennsylvanians are still being counted. We will make sure every Pennsylvanian’s voice is heard.”

Updated

A breakdown of popular vote margins in 2020 and 2024

Here’s a look at how the popular vote margins shifted from 2020 to 2024 in Republicans’ favor, helping Trump flip key states and secure victory.

Republican Dave McCormick ousts Democrat in Pennsylvania Senate

The Republican Dave McCormick won the Senate race in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Thursday, denying the Democratic incumbent, Bob Casey, a fourth term and expanding his party’s majority in the upper chamber.

When the Associated Press called the race at 4.09pm ET on Thursday, two days after polls closed in Pennsylvania, McCormick led by 0.4 points. The narrow margin raised the possibility of a recount, although his victory is expected to stand given his lead of roughly 30,000 votes.

With McCormick’s victory, Republicans have now secured at least 53 seats in the Senate, erasing Democrats’ previous majority in the chamber. Two Senate races in Nevada and Arizona remained too close to call as of Thursday afternoon.

Protesters gathered at Trump Tower in Chicago

At least 200 people gathered outside the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago on Wednesday night to protest Donald Trump’s re-election and call for an end to the war in Gaza. Here’s a video and some photos:

Updated

Donald Trump made inroads in two Michigan cities that are home to some of the largest Arab American and Muslim communities in the United States, after those voters grew disenchanted with Joe Biden over his support for Israel’s invasion of Gaza.

In addition to winning Michigan overall, the Detroit Free Press reports that Trump was the pick of most voters in Dearborn, and performed well in Hamtramck – both cities where many people of Middle Eastern descent live.

In previous elections, Democrats had performed well in those communities, but Biden’s decision to supply Israel with weapons it has used in Gaza and, more recently, Lebanon, sparked a sustained backlash that extended to his vice-president, Kamala Harris. Trump has said little about how he would handle Israel’s conflicts as president, but was supportive of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government during his first term, and also implemented a ban on travelers from several majority Muslim countries.

Here’s more about the backlash Harris faced in Michigan, from the Free Press:

In Dearborn, where 55% of the residents are of Middle Eastern descent, Trump won with 42.48% of the vote over Vice President Kamala Harris, who received 36.26%, according to results, with 100% of precincts counted, provided to the Free Press from City Clerk George Darany. Jill Stein received 18.37% of the vote. Voter turnout in Dearborn was smaller compared to 2020.

Trump also won in Dearborn Heights, where 39% of the residents are of Middle Eastern descent, defeating Harris 44% to 38.3%, with Stein at 15.1%.

In the November 2020 election, Biden received 68.8% in Dearborn while Trump received 29.9%. Muslim voters interviewed Tuesday at polling sites said they were disappointed with the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s attacks and also preferred Trump’s views on economics.

…

In Hamtramck, Trump also had a substantial increase in support, but Harris won the working-class city that has the highest percentage of immigrants among cities in Michigan. In November 2020, Biden won Hamtramck, winning with 85.4% of the vote over Trump, who only got 13.4%.

With 100% of the vote counted, Harris got 46.2% in Tuesday’s election in Hamtramck, a significant decrease from Biden’s 85% four years ago, while Trump got 42.7% and Jill Stein was at 8.96%, according to results provided to the Free Press by City Clerk Rana Faraj.

Updated

Now that he’s heading back to the White House, Donald Trump will need a chief of staff – and NBC News reports that Susie Wiles, a co-manager of his successful re-election campaign, is among the top contenders for the job.

She’d be the first female White House chief of staff ever, if Trump picks her. Here’s more:

‘She has commanded a ton of respect amongst the staff, as well as loyalty. She doesn’t play games. And she means what she says: On the campaign, she said we are checking egos at the door and held everyone to it,’ said one campaign official, who, like others in this piece, was granted anonymity to speak candidly or because they were not authorized to speak on the record. ‘The team of rivals concept did not apply here.’

‘Susie is as good as they get,’ a second Trump campaign official said. ‘She ran a great campaign and has the respect of all – including Democrats who recognize her talent. She’d make for a great chief of staff and would serve at the president’s pleasure. After all, it is his White House.’ A third Trump campaign official said Wiles is already playing the de-facto chief of staff role and that staffers widely want her to get the job. A large staff meeting is taking place at the campaign headquarters on Thursday, and Wiles will lead it.

The sense among advisers is that if Trump makes a strong appeal to Wiles, she would take the job – and it is widely hoped she will.

‘If she wants it, it’s hers,’ said an adviser familiar with the discussions. ‘Her standing with Trump and what she just helped pull off [winning by huge margins], makes it an easy choice if she wants it.’

Updated

Biden to focus on government funding, hurricane relief in final weeks as president

With the clock ticking toward the end of his presidency, Joe Biden will focus on keeping the government funded and open, pass the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), rush assistance to communities battered by hurricanes Helene and Milton, as well as confirm judicial nominees.

“That’s going to be certainly our focus in the next 74 days,” the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told reporters.

She repeatedly declined to engage in questions about whether Biden felt partly responsible for Kamala Harris’s loss, whether he had any regrets about his decision to seek re-election or whether he believed he might have beat Donald Trump had he remained in the race.

Stating what she said was “just a fact”, Jean-Pierre pushed back on the accusation that it was arrogant for the 81-year-old president to run for a second term: “This is the president who has been the only person [who] has been able to beat Donald Trump.”

She repeated that Biden believes his decision to “pass the torch” to his vice-president was the right one. “She was the right person for the job,” Jean-Pierre said.

She also cited the global post-pandemic headwinds that have doomed incumbent parties around the world.

“It had a political toll on many incumbents. That’s part of what you saw,” she said.

Updated

'No price tag' for mass deportation plan, Trump says in interview

Speaking to NBC News, Donald Trump made clear that the mass deportations of undocumented immigrants that he campaigned on will be a top priority of his administration.

“We obviously have to make the border strong and powerful and, and we have to – at the same time, we want people to come into our country,” Trump said, adding that, “I’m not somebody that says, ‘No, you can’t come in.’ We want people to come in.”

NBC asked about how he would pay for the plan, which immigration experts believe would be beyond the current capacities of the federal government agencies who deal with immigration. Trump replied:

It’s not a question of a price tag. It’s not – really, we have no choice. When people have killed and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries and now they’re going to go back to those countries because they’re not staying here. There is no price tag.

Jerome Powell is loathe to comment on political issues, and kept that up today, when asked for his reaction to Donald Trump’s criticism of his tenure leading the Federal Reserve, and the impact it may have on its independence.

“I’m not going to get into any of the political things here today, but thank you,” the central bank chief said.

Federal Reserve chair says he will not resign if asked by Trump

The Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, says he will not resign if Donald Trump requests it.

Trump appointed Powell, a Republican, to his first term leading the central bank, and Joe Biden renominated him in 2021. But during his first administration, Trump called the central bank’s rate-setting committee “boneheads” for not cutting rates aggressively enough, and has said he should have a role in controlling rates – threatening the independence of the central bank.

In his press conference held after the committee announced a quarter-point cut in interest rates, Powell was asked if he would resign at Trump’s request. Some advisors to the president-elect have proposed replacing Powell before his term is up.

“No,” the central bank chief replied.

He again said “no,” when asked if he believed he had no legal requirement to leave the post when asked.

Updated

At a press conference, the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, was asked how the central bank would react to potentially inflationary policies from the second Trump administration.

Trump has said he will impose tariffs on imported goods, which many economists argue will increase prices.

“In the near term the election will have no effects on our policy decisions,” said Powell. “Many, many things affect the economy … We don’t guess, we don’t speculate and we don’t assume.”

Updated

Federal Reserve cuts interest rates again, shifting from fighting inflation to defending labor market

The Federal Reserve has cut interest rates further, saying progress has been made against the wave of inflation that struck the United States during Joe Biden’s presidency, which was likely a major factor in voters choosing Donald Trump as the next president.

In a statement, the central bank’s rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee pointed to the need to support the labor market in cutting its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point to the 4.5% to 4.75% range. Government data released in recent months has shown a slowdown in hiring and uptick in unemployment, even as economic growth has remained strong.

The Fed raised interest rates to their highest levels in decades as consumer prices climbed at rates not seen since the 1980s over the past three years. But inflation has eased recently, and the Fed began lowering rates with a half-point cut in September.

Biden’s approval ratings dropped as inflation rose, with voters citing the unaffordability of groceries, gas and housing as one of their top issues. Those concerns paved the way for the re-election of Trump, who has campaigned on cutting taxes and expanding oil and gas production.

Putin calls Trump 'courageous man' for surviving assassination attempt

Vladimir Putin also praised Donald Trump for surviving an assassination attempt during his rally in Pennsylvania in July, Reuters reports.

“His behavior at the time of the attempt on his life made an impression on me,” Putin said. “He turned out to be a courageous man. And it’s not just about the raised hand and the call to fight for his and their common ideals ... He behaved, in my opinion, in a very correct way, courageously, like a man.”

After being pulled to the ground by Secret Service agents when a gunman opened fire as he was speaking at an outdoor rally, Trump stood up and, pumping his fist in the air, yelled, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” It became a rallying cry at his rallies in his successful campaign to return to the presidency.

The Associated Press reports that Vladimir Putin did not reveal his expectations for Donald Trump’s second term, but said he was interested in his proposal to end the war in Ukraine.

Trump has made a vague promise to end the conflict that began when Russia invaded its neighbor within “24 hours” of becoming president.

“I don’t know what will happen now, I have no idea,” Putin responded, when asked about his expectations of Trump. He added that the president-elect’s statements “about the desire to restore relations with Russia, to help end the Ukrainian crisis, in my opinion, deserves attention at least”.

Updated

Putin congratulates Trump on election win, says he's ready to talk

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, congratulated Donald Trump on winning the US presidential election, and said he was willing to talk to him, Reuters reports.

“I would like to congratulate him on his election as president,” Putin said in Sochi, a resort on the Black Sea.

Trump has promised to quickly end the war in Ukraine, which began when Russia invaded in February 2022, but has not said how. During his first term, Trump was known for a relationship with Putin that many viewed as uncomfortably close for a leader of one of the US’s top global rivals, and last month, investigative journalist Bob Woodward revealed that Trump sent Russia Covid-19 testing machines during a period in 2020 when they were scarce:

Updated

Republican Rob Bresnahan won election to a US House seat representing Pennsylvania today, defeating the Democratic representative Matt Cartwright, the Associated Press reports after calling the race.

Republicans have long sought to unseat Cartwright in this Scranton-based seat.

Bresnahan is a first-time candidate and the CEO of an electrical contracting company founded by his grandfather.

Cartwright has represented the district for six terms. The AP declared Bresnahan the winner at 1.46pm Eastern Standard Time.

Scranton is Joe Biden’s birthplace and the county scraped out a win for Kamala Harris in this election, while she lost Pennsylvania and the presidential race to Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, Republicans this week won a majority in the US Senate but whether they have control of the US House of Representatives remains unclear, with many of the most competitive races still uncalled.

Updated

Former New York mayor, presidential candidate and lawyer for Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, has been engaging in “delay and then evasion” over surrendering assets to help cover the $148m judgment against him in favor of two Georgia election workers he defamed, a Manhattan court heard earlier today.

Giuliani told the judge in the case that he’d been “treated rudely” by those trying to seize his property and belongings.

As the legal wrangling goes on, a recap that Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss faced an avalanche of abuse from the right, including death threats, after Giuliani accused them of sneaking ballots in suitcases during the fraught 2020 presidential election count in Georgia, and also of counting ballots multiple times and interfering with voting machines. They sued him for defamation and won.

Updated

The possessions that Rudy Giuliani is obliged to surrender against his court-ordered $148m payment to the Georgia election workers he defamed include his $5m Upper East Side apartment, a 1980 Mercedes once owned by the movie star Lauren Bacall, a shirt signed by the New York Yankees legend Joe DiMaggio, dozens of luxury watches and other valuables.

Judge Lewis Liman ordered Giuliani to hand over the Mercedes by Monday, the Associated Press reports.

Liman originally scheduled a phone conference about the situation, but he changed it to a hearing in Manhattan federal court that Giuliani must attend after learning about the visit to the former mayor’s apartment.

Aaron Nathan, an attorney for the election workers, wrote in a letter to Liman that the residence was already “substantially empty” when representatives for his clients visited with a moving company official to assess the transportation and storage needs for the property Giuliani was ordered to surrender.

Updated

A combative Rudy Giuliani said a civil case to take his most prized assets was like “a political persecution” before he entered a New York courthouse earlier today to explain to a federal judge why he hasn’t surrendered his valuables by the 29 October deadline as part of a $148m defamation judgment.

The judge, Lewis Liman, ordered the former New York City mayor to report to court after lawyers for the two former Georgia election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, who were awarded the massive judgment, visited Giuliani’s Manhattan apartment last week to discover it had been cleared out weeks earlier, the Associated Press reports.

‘Every bit of property that they want is available, if they are entitled to it. Now, the law says they’re not entitled to a lot of them. For example, they want my grandfather’s watch, which is 150 years old. That’s a bit of an heirloom. Usually you don’t get those unless you’re involved in a political persecution. In fact, having me here today is like a political persecution,’ Giuliani told reporters as he arrived at court in Manhattan.

During the court proceeding, which lasted over an hour, a lawyer for Freeman and Moss and a lawyer for Giuliani disputed whether the longtime politican had done all he could to turn over assets. More details to follow.

Updated

The day so far

Joe Biden reflected on the defeat of his vice-president, Kamala Harris, in Tuesday’s presidential election, saying in a speech from the White House he will “ensure a peaceful and orderly transition” to Donald Trump, while calling on the country to “bring down the temperature”. Several key races remain to be called, including the presidential outcomes in swing states Arizona and Nevada (where Trump is tipped to win), Senate races in those two states plus Pennsylvania and, perhaps most importantly, control of the House. Based on analyses of election results so far, it appears that Trump won by driving out the Republican base and making gains among certain groups that typically back Democrats. But split-ticket voters stepped up for Democratic senators and a governor in swing states, reducing their losses in what was otherwise a rough election.

Here’s what else has happened today:

  • Trump’s sentencing in his business fraud trial scheduled for later this month? Probably not happening, Politico reports.

  • Gavin Newsom, the California governor and potential presidential candidate some day, called the legislature into a special session to prepare to fight Trump.

  • Democrats aired grievances over Harris’s election loss, with many pointing the finger at Biden and his aborted attempt at a second term.

  • Americans are stockpiling abortion pills as Trump’s victory seems set to put foes of the procedure into positions of power.

  • Harris was unable to settle on an effective message against Trump, and was hobbled from the start by Biden’s low approval ratings, a New York Times postmortem of her campaign finds.

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Trump might be back, but split-ticket voters limited Democratic losses in historic election

Democrats have been described as heading for the political wilderness after voters nationwide rejected Kamala Harris on Tuesday and voted out enough of the party’s senators to return the GOP to the majority in the chamber. Donald Trump’s allies believe they are course to again control the House, though ballot counting in key races is ongoing.

But Democrats were saved from an even-worse wipeout by split-ticket voters across swing states who supported the party’s down-ballot candidates even while rejecting Harris. Consider the following races that the Associated Press has called:

  • North Carolina voters gave Trump 51.1% of the vote, but backed Democratic attorney Josh Stein for governor over Mark Robinson, the lieutenant-governor who once called himself a “black Nazi”.

  • Michigan voters broke for Trump with 49.8% of the vote, but also narrowly elected Democrat Elissa Slotkin to the Senate with 48.6% of the vote over her challenger Mike Rogers’s 48.3%.

  • It was a bit more comfortable for Democratic senator Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin, a state Trump won with 49.7% of the vote. Baldwin won re-election with 49.4% support, over Republican Eric Hovde’s 48.5%.

The AP has not yet called the outcomes of the presidential or Senate races in Arizona and Nevada. Trump appears likely to win both states, though Democratic Senate candidates Ruben Gallego in Arizona and Jacky Rosen in Nevada both seem poised for victory. Jon Ralston, the authoritative Nevada political analyst, has a look at how split-ticket voters are making the difference for Rosen in that state:

The one swing state where the GOP appears to be about to gain a Senate seat is Pennsylvania. The state went to Trump, but the AP has not called its Senate race, where Democratic incumbent Bob Casey is narrowly behind his Republican challenger, David McCormick, in ballots that have been counted so far.

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Newsom calls California legislature into special session to ready for Trump's return

California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, has called the legislature into a special session to the prepare the most populous state for the fight against Donald Trump’s second administration.

“The freedoms we hold dear in California are under attack – and we won’t sit idle. California has faced this challenge before, and we know how to respond. We are prepared, and we will do everything necessary to ensure Californians have the support and resources they need to thrive,” said Newsom, a rising star in the Democratic party who is viewed as having presidential ambitions.

Democrats are the strongest party in California, and control both chambers of its legislature in Sacramento. Newsom’s office said lawmakers would be asked to pass legislation that will allow the state to pursue lawsuits against the policies that Trump is expected to enact:

The special session responds to the public statements and proposals put forward by President-elect Trump and his advisors, and actions taken during his first term in office – an agenda that could erode essential freedoms and individual rights, including women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights. A special session allows for expedited action that will best protect California and its values from attacks. The special session will begin December 2, when the Legislature convenes.

The Governor has outlined several urgent priorities to be defended in this special session by bolstering legal defenses against federal actions. The Governor’s proclamation calls for legislation to provide additional resources to the California Department of Justice and other state entities to pursue robust affirmative litigation against any unlawful actions by the incoming Trump Administration, as well as defend against federal lawsuits aimed at undermining California’s laws and policies. The funding will support the ability to immediately file litigation and seek injunctive relief against unlawful federal actions.

While Kamala Harris won the state’s 54 electoral votes and voters sent Democrat Adam Schiff to the Senate, California may also be where Democrats’ hopes of winning the House die. The state is home to several closely fought House districts, where Republicans have hung on to their seats thanks to split-ticket voters. Counting is ongoing in many of these districts, and it remains to be seen if enough Democrats can win to give the party the majority in the US House, and thus the ability to block Trump from passing legislation.

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The former New York City mayor and Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg shared a few thoughts about why Kamala Harris failed in keeping Donald Trump from returning to the White House.

They come at the end of a column published by his eponymous news agency where Bloomberg lays out his policy recommendations to Trump for his second term:

Democrats, for their part, might ask themselves how exactly they lost to Trump, an ailing 78-year-old who much of the country despises. It probably wasn’t great to cover up President Joe Biden’s infirmities until they became undeniable on live TV. It wasn’t ideal that party elders replaced him with Harris, a nominee who had received no electoral votes and had failed decisively in a previous presidential run.

But for now, the country will simply need to deal with Trump, and begin to restrain his worst excesses, one more time.

Dealing with a reckless president is an exhausting job, but it can and must be done – and it’s a job for members of both parties.

If there’s any silver lining for Democrats in this election, it might be found in the House, and even then, it may not add up to much.

Control of the House has not been decided, but based on how key races are trending, the GOP is generally viewed as having a better chance at keeping its small majority than Democrats are of gaining one.

The chamber’s Democratic minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, just released a brief statement acknowledging that reality, noting that races in a few western states where counting is still ongoing are likely to determine the majority:

Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz are remarkable public servants who ran an inspired and positive campaign focused on lifting people up. We look forward to our continued partnership on behalf of the American people in the next chapter of their public service journey.

It has yet to be decided who will control the House of Representatives in the 119th Congress. We must count every vote and wait until the results in Oregon, Arizona and California are clear.

I am proud that the Democratic Party does not believe in election denial. Our Democracy is precious and it involves elevating public trust in our system of free and fair elections, not undermining it.

We cannot love America only when we win.

The American people have spoken. I congratulate President-elect Donald J. Trump.

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Biden’s final words were a promise to keep fighting in the final weeks of his presidency, and an exhortation to his supporters to do the same.

“Together, we’ve changed America for the better. Now, we have 74 days to finish the term, our term. Let’s make every day count. That’s the responsibility we have to the American people,” he said.

“Setbacks are unavoidable, but giving up is unforgivable. We all get knocked down, but the measure of our character, as my dad would say, is how quickly we get back up. Remember, a defeat does not mean we are defeated. We lost this battle. The America of your dreams is calling for you to get back up. That’s the story of America for over 240 years and counting. It’s a story for all of us, not just some of us. The American experiment endures. We’re going to be okay, but we need to stay engaged.”

With Democrats in retreat, Biden defends 'historic presidency', acknowledges party is 'hurting'

As he wrapped up his speech, Joe Biden directed a few words at his fellow Democrats, who on Tuesday saw their candidate Kamala Harris defeated and their lawmakers lose control of the Senate.

“I know it’s a difficult time. You’re hurting. I hear you and I see you, but don’t forget, don’t forget all that we accomplished. It’s been a historic presidency, not because I’m president, because what we’ve done, what you’ve done,” Biden said.

He then appeared to defend his own policies, saying:

Much of the work we’ve done is already being felt by the American people, but the vast majority of it will not be felt … over the next 10 years … We have legislation we passed that’s just only now, just really kicking in. We’re going to see over a trillion dollars worth of infrastructure work done, changing people’s lives in rural communities and communities that are in real difficulty.

However, Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress could vote to undo Biden’s legislative accomplishments – something the Democratic president nodded to.

“The road ahead is clear, assuming we sustain it,” he said.

Biden says American election system 'can be trusted' and urges people to 'bring down temperature'

Nodding to Donald Trump’s baseless insistence that he fraudulently lost the 2020 election, Joe Biden said he hopes Trump’s re-election on Tuesday puts to rest doubts about the fairness of US elections.

“Something to hope we can do, no matter who you voted for, is see each other not as adversaries, but as fellow Americans. Bring down the temperature,” the president said.

“I also hope we can lay to rest the question about the integrity of the American electoral system. It is honest, it is fair, and it is transparent, and it can be trusted, win or lose.”

Biden added that, “I also hope we can restore the respect for all our election workers who busted their necks and took risks,” and likened their work to his duties in his final weeks in office.

“At the outset, we should thank them. Thank them for staffing voting sites, counting the votes, protecting the very integrity of the election. Many of them are volunteers who do it simply out of love for their country. And, as they did, as they did their duty as citizens, I will do my duty as president. I will fulfill my oath, and I will honor the constitution. On January 20, we’ll have a peaceful transfer of power here in America.”

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Biden says he will 'ensure a peaceful and orderly transition' to Trump

Joe Biden says he has instructed his officials to ensure there are no hiccups in the transition to Donald Trump’s second administration.

“Yesterday, I spoke with president-elect Trump to congratulate him on his victory, and I assured him that I direct my entire administration to work with his team to ensure a peaceful and orderly transition. That’s what the American people deserve,” Biden said.

Biden speaks from White House on transition to Trump

Joe Biden has just begun speaking from the White House, where he is set to address the transition to Donald Trump’s second administration.

We’ll let you know what the outgoing president has to say.

Reporters have just been let into the Rose Garden, where Joe Biden will soon address the nation on the results of the presidential election.

There is a healthy crowd of journalists here to see Biden, who campaigned for his vice-president Kamala Harris after withdrawing from the race in July.

Joe Biden’s speech from the White House about the transition to a second Trump administration was supposed to start at 11am, but the president is late.

We will let you know when he begins talking.

Bob Casey, Democratic senator, continues to trail his Republican opponent, Dave McCormick, in Pennsylvania, but the incumbent’s campaign remains confident in his re-election.

“The count in Pennsylvania is still continuing. Yesterday, the vote margin shrunk by 50,000 votes and this race is now within half a point, the threshold for automatic recounts in Pennsylvania,” Maddy McDaniel, a spokesperson for Casey, said in a newly released statement.

“With tens of thousands more votes to be counted, we are committed to ensuring every Pennsylvanian’s vote is heard and confident that at the end of that process, senator Casey will be re-elected.”

As of this morning, Casey still trailed McCormick by about 30,000 votes.

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Independent senator Angus King has won re-election in Maine, the Associated Press reports.

The victory by King, who caucuses with the Democrats, was not unexpected in a state that leans blue. The party is nonetheless in the minority in the next Congress, having lost Senate seats representing West Virginia, Ohio and Montana. Democrats may also lose another seat in Pennsylvania, though that race has not yet been called.

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Politico’s morning Playbook newsletter was rife with Democrats pointing the finger at each other over Kamala Harris’s election loss.

But there was one name repeated more than many others: Joe Biden. Politico heard from several plugged-in Democrats – though note that all of them are former advisors to top politicians, not current ones – who say the president set the stage for Donald Trump’s return by pursuing re-election amid broad unpopularity, then calling his campaign off at the last moment. From Playbook:

  • “He shouldn’t have run,” said JIM MANLEY, a top aide to former Senate Majority Leader HARRY REID. “This is no time to pull punches or be concerned about anyone’s feelings. He and his staff have done an enormous amount of damage to this country.”

  • “There was a Biden weariness,” said JAMES ZOGBY, a three-decade veteran of the DNC. “And he hung on too long.”

  • “[Harris] ran an extraordinary campaign with a very tough hand that was handed to her,” said MARK LONGABAUGH, a former Sanders adviser. “The truth of the matter is, Biden should have stepped aside earlier and let the party put together a longer game plan.”

Trump's re-election means judge unlikely to sentence him over business fraud conviction - report

Donald Trump’s sentencing scheduled for later this month on the business fraud charges he was convicted of in New York is unlikely to happen, Politico reports.

Trump was convicted in May on 34 felony counts related to falsifying business documents, but his lawyers have managed to get his sentencing date delayed twice. Now, he’s the president-elect, and legal experts that Politico spoke to say that it’s unlikely judge Juan Merchan will go through with sentencing him on 26 November:

“I think any reasonable judge wouldn’t sentence the president-elect,” said Jill Konviser, a retired New York trial judge.

Imposing a sentence now — even a non-prison sentence like home confinement, probation or community service — would interfere with the soon-to-be president’s duties, legal experts say.

In theory, the judge who presided over the hush money trial, Justice Juan Merchan, could try to proceed with the sentencing as scheduled and order that any sentence be deferred until 2029, when Trump will complete his term. But even that would pose problems, as Trump’s lawyers are sure to argue that hauling the president-elect into a state courtroom in the middle of the presidential transition would impede the orderly transfer of power.

“His lawyers will say he’s busy with the transition and therefore he won’t show up, and they will ask that any sentencing be adjourned until after the presidency,” predicted former prosecutor Catherine Christian.

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The New York Times has its own look at how Donald Trump won and Kamala Harris lost, focusing on decisions made by their respective campaigns.

Trump’s campaign was his most disciplined yet, even if he continued his streak of making surprising and unguarded statements in public. Harris, meanwhile, couldn’t quite settle on a winning message, and began her campaign at a disadvantage owing to Joe Biden’s unpopularity. Here’s more:

Mr. Trump successfully harnessed the anger and frustration millions of Americans felt about some of the very institutions and systems he will soon control as the country’s 47th president. Voters unhappy with the nation’s direction turned him into a vessel for their rage.

“The elites cannot come to grips with how alienated they are from the country,” said Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, an informal adviser to the former and now future president.

But more than just broad societal forces were at play. His victory owed, in part, to strategic decisions by a campaign operation that was his most stable yet and was held together for nearly four years by a veteran operative, Susie Wiles — even if the candidate himself was, for much of 2024, as erratic as ever.

The Trump team schemed ways to save its cash for a final ad blitz, abandoning a traditional ground game to turn out its voters and relying instead on a relatively small paid staff buttressed by volunteers and outsiders, including the world’s richest man, Elon Musk. Mr. Trump relentlessly pushed to define Ms. Harris not just as radically liberal but as foolishly out of the mainstream. The inspiration, his advisers said, was a memorable Nixon-era saying by the Republican strategist Arthur Finkelstein: “A crook” — or, in Mr. Trump’s case, a convict — “always beats a fool.”

Mr. Trump’s aides gambled on mobilizing men, though men vote less than women, and it paid off. And they gambled on trying to cut into Democrats’ typically big margins among Black and Latino voters, and that paid off, too.

…

How Mr. Trump won is also the story of how Ms. Harris lost.

She was hobbled by President Biden’s low approval ratings and struggled to break from him in the eyes of voters yearning for a change in direction. She had only three-plus months to reintroduce herself to the country and she vacillated until the end with how — and how much — to talk about Mr. Trump.

First, she and her running mate, Tim Walz, tried minimizing him by mocking him as “weird” and “unserious,” setting aside Mr. Biden’s grave warnings that Mr. Trump was an existential threat to American democracy. Then she focused on a populist message: Mr. Trump cared only about his rich friends, while she would bring down the prices of groceries and housing for ordinary people. Finally, late in the campaign, Ms. Harris pivoted again: Mr. Trump was a “fascist,” she warned — just the existential threat Mr. Biden had invoked.

Some finger-pointing emerged from the wreckage, including over whether Ms. Harris had focused too much on appealing to wayward Republicans or whether Mr. Biden had dealt her an unwinnable hand. “We dug out of a deep hole but not enough,” David Plouffe, a senior Harris adviser, wrote on X.

Trump won by getting out Republican base, making gains with left-leaning groups

The Associated Press has just published a look at how different demographic groups across the US voted in Tuesday’s election, which offers some clues into the question of how Donald Trump triumphed over Kamala Harris.

Trump won by getting lots of voters who traditionally support Republicans out to the polls, while also shaving off slivers of support from groups that typically vote for Democrats. Harris, meanwhile, did not make comparable gains among groups that lean towards the GOP, despite spending the run-up to the election campaigning alongside Republicans who had broken with Trump.

Here’s more, from the AP:

Donald Trump won the presidency after holding tight to his core base of voters and slightly expanding his coalition to include several groups that have traditionally been a part of the Democratic base. That finding comes from AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 120,000 voters nationwide that shows what issues mattered to voters in this election.

Trump picked up a small but significant share of Black and Hispanic voters, and made narrow gains with men and women. As Trump chipped away at parts of Democrats’ coalition, Vice President Kamala Harris wasn’t able to make enough of her own gains. Trump succeeded in locking down his traditionally older, white base of voters, and he slightly expanded his margins with other groups into a winning coalition.

Here’s how five key demographic groups voted, according to AP VoteCast.

Most Trump voters were white, a trend that continued from 2020

Slightly more than 8 in 10 Trump voters in this election were white, roughly in line with 2020. About two-thirds of Harris’ voters were white, and that largely matched President Joe Biden ’s coalition in the last election. White voters make up a bulk of the voting electorate in the United States, and they did not shift their support significantly at the national level compared to 2020.

A majority of white voters cast their ballot for Trump, unchanged from the 2020 election that he narrowly lost. About 4 in 10 white voters backed Harris, which is about the same as Biden received in 2020. White voters were also more likely to support Trump over Harris and Biden in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, even though Trump lost those states in 2020.

How did Donald Trump win the presidential election?

This topic will be discussed for years, and with ballot counting still ongoing in parts of the country (though not expected to change the election result), we don’t yet have full data on how everyone who cast ballots voted.

Nonetheless, local news outlets in swing states have started digging in to the dynamics that led to Trump’s victory. Here’s the Philadelphia Inquirer’s reporting on how Trump won Pennsylvania, which they find was due to to a poor showing by Democrats in the state’s largest city:

President-elect Donald Trump won one out of five Philadelphia voters in one of the strongest performances by a Republican presidential candidate in the deep-blue city in years, doing so by increasing his support in working-class communities across racial groups.

Despite winning Philadelphia handily, Vice President Kamala Harris failed to capture enough votes in the city — where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 7-1 — to offset Republican gains elsewhere in the state, a key factor in Trump’s decisive statewide win.

With some ballots still left to count, Harris was carrying the city with about 78% of the vote compared to Trump’s 20%. As of Wednesday afternoon, she had a 407,000-vote advantage over Trump — if that holds, it would be the lowest margin for a Democratic presidential candidate in more than two decades. The rightward trend was reflected throughout the country, including in other big cities, and Trump improved on his 2020 performance in every state that had counted most of its votes.

All told, Philadelphia was on pace to shift about 2 percentage points to the right. But turnout was roughly flat compared to 2020 — lower than Democrats had hoped. Harris was on track to receive at least 50,000 fewer votes in the city than President Joe Biden won in 2020.

Biden to address nation after Trump re-elected president

Joe Biden is scheduled to address the nation from the White House after Donald Trump won the presidential election.

The 11am speech will likely be a tough one for the Democratic president, who cut short his own re-election bid in July and endorsed his vice-president Kamala Harris, only to see her lose to Trump. Biden’s predecessor attempted to block him from taking office after losing to him in 2020, and has vowed to undo many of his policies once he returns to power.

Biden and Trump spoke by phone yesterday, and agreed to soon meet to discuss the transition between administrations. The date of that meeting has not yet been set.

Key states, Senate races still have not been called

This is more of a formality than anything, but we still do not know the official winner of two swing states, as well as three close Senate races.

The Associated Press, who the Guardian relies on to call races, has not determined the election result in Nevada and Arizona, but Donald Trump already has the electoral votes he needs to become the next president, and appears poised to win both states. When the AP speaks, we’ll let you know.

The AP has not yet called the winner of the Senate race in Nevada, where Democrat Jacky Rosen is neck-in-neck with Republican Sam Brown. The GOP has already regained control of the chamber, after picking up seats in West Virginia, Ohio and Montana, but a victory by Brown would make their majority even larger.

Also uncalled is the Senate race in Arizona. The independent incumbent Kyrsten Sinema is not running again, and Democrat Ruben Gallego is ahead in the votes counted so far. Republican candidate Kari Lake, who still has not acknowledged her defeat in the governor’s race two years ago, is trailing.

Finally, the AP has not yet called the winner of the Senate race in Pennsylvania. Democratic incumbent Bob Casey has been trailing his Republican challenger David McCormick, but it’s close. A loss for Democrats here would give them 47 Senate seats in the next Congress, and Republicans 53.

This post has been updated to note that the Arizona Senate race has not yet been called

Updated

Two days after election, control of House remains undecided

Americans sent Donald Trump back to the White House and handed Republicans control of the Senate in Tuesday’s election, but we still don’t know who controls the House of Representatives.

That’s largely due to ballot counting in western states, particularly California, which is ongoing and may take days to resolve. Republicans currently have a tiny majority of about three seats in the chamber, and Democrats were hoping to gain back that ground.

Should Democrats win the chamber, it will likely be by only a small amount, but will put them in a position to block many of Trump’s legislative proposals.

The US has elected Donald Trump for a second time after a convincing victory over Kamala Harris. In the final instalment of Anywhere but Washington, Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone travel to Michigan to watch the final days of the race; as fervent Trump supporters hit the streets, young women mobilise behind Harris, and chaos and despair drive rival election night parties:

At a Republican watch party early Tuesday evening in the Milwaukee suburbs, Dimitra Anderson, a 64-year-old bellydancer, clutched her boa constrictor – a pet that travels with her everywhere – and issued a confident proclamation: “I’m ecstatic because I believe he’s going to win in a tidal wave.”

The night was young, no swing states had been called yet, but Anderson, who describes herself as a born-again believer, had been following the preachings of the self-styled prophets of the Christian right. They were saying Donald Trump would win.

And they were right.

After a narrow electoral defeat in 2020 and two assassination attempts in 2024, Trump has emerged victorious – an event that Christian nationalists are celebrating as a critical win for their movement.

Now that Trump has secured his victory, figures on the Christian far right whose prominence grew during Trump’s 2016 presidency will enjoy larger followings and most importantly, close proximity to the highest office in the US. Among these figures are leaders in the New Apostolic Reformation, a movement which rejects secularism and embraces “Christian dominionism”, the idea that Christians are tasked by God to rule over society and government.

During his election night broadcast on YouTube, Lance Wallnau, a Trump ally and televangelist whose “seven mountains” mandate for Christian leadership of key pillars of society has taken hold on the Christian far right, celebrated the results.

“This is a reformation on America,” said Wallnau, describing a strategy for activists who share his ideology to capture key positions in local and state government. “It’s not done, it’s not over, it’s just starting.”

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Americans stockpile abortion pills and hormones ahead of ‘reproductive apocalypse’ under Trump

When the presidential election results were handed down on Wednesday, Rebecca Gomperts, the founder of Aid Access, the No 1 supplier of abortion pills by mail in the United States, was huddled in a Paris apartment with her team of eight American physicians and 15 support staff. The group – which usually operates remotely, shipping out more than 9,000 abortion pills a month – had convened in person before the election, knowing they might have to spring into action.

They were right: as news of Donald Trump’s victory spread, the website received more than 5,000 requests for abortion pills in less than 12 hours – a surge even larger than the day after Roe v Wade fell. “I can see all the new requests ticking in as we’re talking,” Gomperts said in a phone call on Wednesday afternoon. “We’ve never seen this before.”

The scenario repeated itself across the country as news of Trump’s victory broke, with women’s health and trans health providers getting inundated with requests for services that their patients feared might be banned in a Trump administration. The telehealth service Wisp saw a 300% increase in requests for emergency contraception; the abortion pill finder site Plan C saw a 625% increase in traffic.

“Clearly, people are trying to plan for the reproductive apocalypse that we anticipate will be happening under a Trump presidency,” said Elisa Wells, the co-founder of Plan C.

For Gomperts and her team at Aid Access, the moment did not come as a shock: they’d been preparing for it since the last Trump administration, when Gomperts, a Dutch physician, expanded her international abortion pill service into the United States. Since then, Aid Access has devised a system in which physicians in states where abortion is legal prescribe and ship abortion pills to patients in states where it is not. The nonprofit eventually expanded to the team of eight physicians in four states they have now, along with a help desk that is available 24/7.

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Nevada on verge of voting Republican for first time in two decades

Nevada appears to be on the precipice of electing a Republican to the White House for the first time in two decades.

“I feel so happy right now, I feel fantastic,” said Yolanda Wright, 47, beaming as state after state lit up red on the big screen at the Republican watch party in Las Vegas. Like many voters in this swing state, Wright voted with the GOP for the first time this year.

“I’ve been a Democrat my whole life,” she said. “And I haven’t seen any benefit from it.”

The Associated Press has yet to project Donald Trump as the winner of the presidential race in the Silver state, and it could take days before all the state’s mail-in ballots are counted and a true tally of votes is revealed. Regardless of the final results, the former president’s political gains in this deeply diverse state are emblematic of a national political realignment.

“Here it’s clear that what we knew as true in politics, a lot of the normal rules we had, those are dead and gone,” said Mike Noble, an independent pollster who has been studying the electorate in Nevada, Arizona and Utah. “Now we have new rules, a new game to play.”

In a state with one of the largest proportions of working-class voters and blue-collar workers, where the economy is dominated by the service and entertainment, as well as mining and construction, a populist message seems to have overcome prior political allegiances. Voters who felt trapped in a dark economic rut chose the person they thought would bring the most change.

Exit polls indicate that more than half of white and Asian voters, and about half of Hispanic/Latino voters cast ballots for Trump. Both the NBC and Washington Post exit polls found that majorities of white women and white men without a college degree backed Trump, and polls suggest he had also gained support among non-white voters without college degrees. Overwhelming majorities of those who voted for Trump said the economy was doing poorly.

Reuters reports that Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim al-Moussawi said on Thursday, when asked about Donald Trump’s election victory, that the group welcomes any effort to stop the war in Lebanon but does not pin its hopes for a ceasefire on any particular US administration.

European leaders struggle for show of unity in wake of Trump victory

European leaders are gathering in Budapest for two days of top-level talks that should give an indication of how united the continent can remain in response to Donald Trump’s second term as US president, but could also reveal its divisions.

Hosted by Hungary’s authoritarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, a Trump ally who has enthusiastically hailed the Republican candidate’s re-election, the EU27’s leaders are being joined on Thursday by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the UK’s Keir Starmer, the Nato secretary general Mark Rutte and Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

On the agenda for the long-scheduled meeting of the European Political Community were support for Ukraine, migration, global trade and economic security, with an informal EU leaders’ summit on Friday due to focus on the bloc’s declining competitiveness, laid bare in a report by the former Italian leader Mario Draghi.

Leaders were upbeat as they arrived, stressing the need for a strong Europe and effective transatlantic cooperation with Trump, whose return to the White House could herald an abrupt halt to US support for Ukraine and a potentially damaging trade war with Europe.

Europe aims to be a “respected partner” and deepen its ties with the US, the president of the European council, Charles Michel, said, while recognising “some differences”. The commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the bloc must maintain unity.

“We have shown Europe can take responsibility by standing together – we showed it during the pandemic and the energy crisis,” she said. “If we are facing challenges, no country can handle them alone but by standing together we can overcome them.”

Von der Leyen said she was looking forward to working with Trump again “in a good manner … to strengthen the transatlantic bond” based on a clear-headed analysis of shared interests. “The future of Europe is in our hands,” she said.

Trump’s victory adds record $64bn to wealth of richest top 10

The wealth of the 10 richest people in the world – a list dominated by US tech billionaires – increased by a record amount after Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election, according to a widely cited index.

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated that the world’s 10 wealthiest people gained nearly $64bn (about £49.5bn) on Wednesday – the largest daily increase since the index began in 2012.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, registered the largest increase with a $26.5bn addition to his fortune, which now stands at $290bn. Musk, a prominent backer of Trump’s campaign, benefited from a surge in the share price of Tesla, the electric carmaker where he is chief executive and in which he owns a 13% stake.

The gains came as tech business leaders, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook parent Meta, and Apple’s Tim Cook publicly congratulated Trump on his election win.

Much of the gains for the top 10 were because of a surge in US stocks on Wednesday as investors anticipated a low-tax and regulation-light policy platform.

Other beneficiaries were Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the world’s second richest person, who added $7bn to his near-$230bn fortune, and Larry Ellison, the chair of the software company Oracle, historically a Republican supporter, who increased his wealth by $9bn to $193bn.

Other members of the top 10 whose wealth grew included Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gates, the former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, and Google’s co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

What has been the reaction to Kamala Harris's election loss?

After Tuesday’s election, and subsequent sweeping victory for Donald Trump, vice-president Kamala Harris’s gave her concession speech on Wednesday afternoon. But, what has been the reaction to Harris’s loss and what does it mean for the Democratic party and its supporters?

After Harris’s concession speech, her supporters expressed shock, grief and disillusionment as they reflected upon the harrowing hours since the election was called for Trump. Instead of feeling galvanized to build resistance movements, voters said that they needed time to rest and reset before thinking of next steps after the election.

Nadia Brown, a political science professor at Georgetown University and a fellow Howard University alumna, had watched the election results pour in from the campus on election night. For Brown, she said that the election results posed “larger questions to ask around what the Democratic party needs to do to maintain the core voting bloc”.

The Democratic pollster Paul Maslin argued that Harris did as well as she could have, given the environment and circumstance. Harris “did a really good job”, Maslin told Politico, but ultimately “this race was unwinnable”.

“Trump, rightly or wrongly, his persona and his fundamental attack line against the condition of the country, the Biden-Harris administration and frankly the Democratic party, was in the end unbeatable,” he said.

CNN’s national political correspondent Alex Thompson noted that a former adviser to Joe Biden criticised the Harris campaign, asking: “How do you spend $1bn and not win?”

Others, Thompson said, have suggested that Joe Biden should have exited the race sooner.

He said one longtime Democratic operative told him the party “sleepwalked into disaster” on Tuesday night, adding that “swapping the pitcher in at the sixth inning wasn’t enough, and that Kamala Harris did as good of a job as she could have done”.

Mark Longabaugh, a veteran Democratic strategist who previously advised Senator Bernie Sanders, also said Harris was handed the reins “too late”, adding that it was a “tough environment” according to Politico.

Others, such as Lindy Li, a senior Democratic official in Pennsylvania, are questioning whether the outcome would have been different if Harris had chosen a different vice-presidential candidate, such as the governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro.

Li argued to Fox News that the moderate Shapiro would have conveyed to American voters that Harris is not the “San Francisco liberal” Trump portrayed her to be. “But she went with someone actually to her left,” Li said, referring to the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, whom Harris chose as her vice-presidential pick.

Li also criticised the Harris campaign for not distinguishing Harris enough from Biden, a point that has been echoed by other operatives and commentators in the last few weeks.

Some pointed to Harris’s appearance on the talkshow The View, when she was asked if there was anything she would have done differently than Biden and responded: “There is not a thing that comes to mind.”

David Sirota, who was a senior adviser for Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign, described Tuesday night as a “very bad night”.

“Some of us spent years warning Dems to take working-class politics more seriously & to not tout neocons,” he said. “We did so in hopes of avoiding this & yet we were vilified as traitors by Dem elites & liberal pundits. There’s a lesson here.”

Another former Bernie Sanders staffer, Jeff Weaver, told Politico that the Democratic party now needed to “re-establish its relationship with the working-class people”.

Updated

Nato’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, said on Thursday that he aimed to work jointly with returning US leader Donald Trump in confronting the “dangerous new developments” linked to North Korea’s entry into the Russian war on Ukraine.

“What we see more and more is that North Korea, Iran, China, and of course Russia are working together, working together against Ukraine,” Rutte told reporters at a European leaders’ meeting in Budapest, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“This is more and more a threat, not only to the European part of Nato, but also to the United States – because Russia is delivering the latest technology into North Korea,” he warned.

“I look forward to sit down with Donald Trump to discuss how we can face these threats collectively,” Rutte said.

Updated

Donald Trump coasted back into the White House by a wide margin in Tuesday’s presidential election, with the Republican’s bombastic style and extreme policy proposals appealing to more than 70 million voters across all 50 states.

His victory also meant misery for Democrats, and Kamala Harris, who was attempting to become the first woman to become president of the US, but who ultimately fell way short, crucially in the handful of swing states that decided the outcome.

Richard Luscombe runs through the 10 key takeaways from a historic election here:

European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Thursday that she was looking forward to working with US president-elect Donald Trump again to strengthen the transatlantic bond, reports Reuters.

“I have some experience with working with President Trump,” she said, adding it was very important that the two “analyse together what our shared interests are and work on that.”

The Kremlin said on Thursday it did not rule out the possibility that some form of contact could take place between Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and US president-elect Donald Trump before the latter’s inauguration in January, Reuters reports citing the Interfax news agency.

Putin has not yet commented on Trump’s election win but is due to speak and take questions at a conference later on Thursday.

The Kremlin reacted cautiously on Wednesday after Trump was elected US president, saying the US was still an unfriendly state and that only time would tell if Trump’s rhetoric on ending the Ukraine war translated into reality.

Abortion, the issue thought to be the magic bullet that would mortally wound Donald Trump’s chances at a second presidency, instead failed to stop him on Tuesday. Now, two years after a conservative supermajority on the US supreme court ended federal protections for the procedure, the future of American abortion access is facing a new chapter of extraordinary peril.

While seven states passed ballot measures to amend their state constitutions and protect abortion rights, Trump’s return to the White House means those hard-fought efforts may amount to nothing. Despite the gridlock in US Congress, a nationwide abortion ban could soon become a reality: anti-abortion advocates hope that Trump will resurrect a 19th-century anti-vice law to effectively implement a nationwide ban. Access to other forms of reproductive healthcare, such as contraception and in vitro fertilization, are also at risk.

Because he’s barred from a third term Trump can now do whatever he wants without fear of electoral consequences, said Mary Ziegler, a professor at the University of California, Davis who studies the legal history of reproduction.

“He’s playing with house money,” Ziegler said. “He can do whatever he’s going to do without fear of conservative Christian voters, without fear of swing voters, without fear of anybody. And he doesn’t have Roe v Wade and he has a conservative supreme court, so that means he could do really aggressive things to limit abortion or IVF – or not. We don’t know.”

In the two years since the high court overturned Roe, abortion became an issue that seemed to spell electoral promise for the Democrats. Before Tuesday, abortion rights advocates had triumphed in all seven states that held related ballot measures. Public support surged, including in red states.

But the outrage and activism did not translate into enough votes for Kamala Harris, who made defending abortion rights a bedrock of her campaign.

Nor did Tuesday’s abortion-related ballot measures necessarily boost Democratic turnout in critical swing states such as Arizona and Nevada.

Special counsel prosecutors will shut down their criminal cases against Donald Trump before he takes office, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter, after his stunning victory against Kamala Harris meant they would not proceed to trial.

The move reflects the reality that the cases will not be completed before inauguration day. Once the former president returns to the White House, the special counsel’s office would be prohibited from pursuing further criminal actions under justice department policy.

The justice department has long known that if Trump won, the criminal cases – over Trump’s retention of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election – would be finished because Trump’s attorney general would likely drop the charges.

But it is also understood to be a preemptive measure to ensure that Trump will not be able to order the dismissal of the special counsel, Jack Smith, as he had vowed to do if he takes office and Smith remained in his role.

That possibility had been relished by Trump’s close aides and advisers, who privately imagined Trump ordering Smith’s removal and his team having to vacate their office space in Washington.

The justice department is still examining how to wind down the cases, which are in different stages and are complicated. In particular, the department does not want the classified documents case, which was dismissed and currently under appeal, to go unchallenged.

Failure to pursue an appeal over the dismissal of the classified documents case on grounds that the special counsel himself was illegally appointed could set a problematic precedent and hamper the department’s ability to use special counsels in the future.

Updated

Robert F Kennedy Jr, who previously said that Donald Trump had promised him control over a broad range of public health agencies if he returned to the White House, said on Wednesday that there are “entire departments” within the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that “have to go”, reports The Hill.

The website, citing an MSNBC interview, reports that Kennedy said:

In some categories … there are entire departments, like the nutrition department at the FDA … that have to go, that are not doing their job, they’re not protecting our kids.”

When asked if he would eliminate any health agencies, Kennedy told MSNBC, “to eliminate the agencies, as long as it requires congressional approval, I wouldn’t be doing that.”

“I can get the corruption out of the agencies,” he added.

Trump on Sunday told NBC that Kennedy, the anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist and former independent candidate who dropped out and endorsed Trump, would have a “big role in the administration” if he won Tuesday’s presidential election.

Trump has won the election - so what happens next?

After Donald Trump’s US election victory, here’s what will happen next:

  • US president, Joe Biden, spoke to Trump on Wednesday and invited him to the White House. Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said Trump “looks forward to the meeting, which will take place shortly, and very much appreciated the call”. It would be the first time they had met since Biden’s disastrous debate performance against Trump in June that forced him out of the race.

  • Biden will make an address to the nation on Thursday, vowing a peaceful transfer of power to Trump after his crushing election win over Kamala Harris. In what promises to be an agonising moment for Biden, he will speak in the Rose Garden of the White House at 11am (4pm GMT) to “discuss the election results and the transition” to Trump’s second term.

  • Despite Trump’s election success being apparent pretty early on election night, the full US election results are still not in. Out of 51 states (including DC), results for 49 have been called so far. Donald Trump currently has 295 electoral votes and Harris has 226. For context, Joe Biden was declared the winner offcially four days after the election in 2020.

  • Harris will preside over a joint session of Congress in January to certify the results of the election. Harris delivered a speech conceding defeat in the presidential election to Trump on Wednesday afternoon.

  • Trump will be sworn in as the 47th US president on 20 January 2025.

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The Philippines expects US policy in the Indo-Pacific and support for its treaty ally amid South China Sea tensions to remain steady under Donald Trump, driven by bipartisan resolve in Washington, its ambassador to the US said on Thursday, reports Reuters.

Both Democrats and Republicans prioritise countering China’s influence, including in the South China Sea, Jose Manuel Romualdez said, suggesting that military cooperation, economic ties and security commitments with the Philippines will continue.

“It is in their interest that the Indo-Pacific region remains free, peaceful and stable, especially given the economic part of it, with trillions of dollars passing through the South China Sea,” Romualdez told Reuters in an interview.

US-Philippine security engagements have deepened under president Joe Biden and Philippine counterpart Ferdinand Marcos Jr, with both leaders keen to counter what they see as China’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea and near Taiwan.

Marcos said in a congratulatory message after Trump’s victory:

I am hopeful that this unshakeable alliance, tested in war and peace, will be a force of good that will blaze a path of prosperity and amity, in the region, and in both sides of the Pacific.”

Under Marcos, the Philippines has increased the number of its bases accessible to US forces to nine from five, some facing the South China Sea, where China has built artificial islands equipped with runways and missile systems. The US has proposed $128m for infrastructure improvements at those bases, in addition to a $500m pledge for the Philippine military and coastguard.

According to Reuters, Romualdez expressed confidence that these commitments, including joint US-Philippine maritime exercises that began last year, would continue under Trump.

“We have very strong bipartisan support in the US Congress where the money comes from. Every single one of our friends in the Republican side has signified their concern and strong support for whatever we’re doing right now in relation to the challenges we face with China today,” Romualdez told Reuters. He suggested potential changes under Trump would be “minimal” and could even be favourable.

Analysts say it is hard to separate the president-elect’s bluster from his actual plans but it’s clear his priority is to bin many of Joe Biden’s policies, writes Andrew Roth in this analysis piece:

The US foreign policy establishment is set for one of the biggest shake-ups in years as Donald Trump has vowed to both revamp US policy abroad and to root out the so-called “deep state” by firing thousands of government workers – including those among the ranks of America’s diplomatic corps.

Trump’s electoral victory is also likely to push the Biden administration to speed up efforts to support Ukraine before Trump can cut off military aid, hamper the already-modest efforts to restrain Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza and Lebanon and lead to a fresh effort to slash and burn through major parts of US bureaucracy including the state department.

Trump backers have said he will be more organised during his second term, often dubbed “Trump 2.0”, and on the day after election day US media reported that Trump had already chosen Brian Hook, a hawkish state department official during the first Trump administration, to lead the transition for America’s diplomats.

And yet analysts, serving and former US diplomats and foreign officials said that it remained difficult to separate Trump’s bluster from his actual plans when he takes power in January. What is clear is that his priority is to bin many of the policies put in place by his predecessor.

“I’m skeptical that the transition process will be super-impactful since the natural instinct of the new team will be to toss all of Biden’s foreign policy in the dumpster,” one former senior diplomat said.

“If you go back to 2016, Mexico didn’t pay for the wall. And, you know, it doesn’t look like there was a secret plan to defeat Isis,” said Richard Fontaine, the CEO of the Center for a New American Security thinktank. “Some of these things didn’t turn out the way that they were talked about on that campaign trail and we go into this without really knowing what the president’s proposal will be for all of this – and what he will do.”

South Korea's Yoon praises Trump in phone call as trade officials brace for tariffs

South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, spoke with Donald Trump on Thursday and congratulated him on winning the US presidency on the “Make America Great Again” slogan as officials in Seoul worked to prepare for “significant” economic changes, reports Reuters.

Yoon and Trump held a 12-minute phone call and discussed the close security and economic ties of their two countries across all areas, a senior South Korean official said on Thursday.

South Korea’s ambassador to the US also visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida to meet with members of the president-elect’s camp, the foreign ministry said.

Trump’s election has renewed attention in South Korea on his “America First” foreign policy plans and how his unpredictable style will play out in his second term, reports Reuters.

Officials worked past midnight on Wednesday to prepare for changes expected from US policies, with the Bank of Korea and thinktanks seeing a potential hit to exports if the US raises tariffs.

Meetings at the trade ministry that began in the hours after Trump’s victory led to back-to-back discussions early on Thursday as South Korea’s economic leaders weighed the impact on exports of potential tariffs.

“Should policy stance that has been stressed by president-elect Trump become realised, the impact on our economy is expected to be significant,” finance minister Choi Sang-mok said at a 7.30am (10.30pm GMT on Wednesday) meeting with trade and foreign ministers.

South Korea would probably suffer less than China, Mexico and the EU, but Asia’s fourth-largest economy could be forced into another renegotiation of its bilateral free trade agreement with Washington, according to Kim Young-gui, an economist at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP).

Updated

Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday that Poland would work on strenghtening its relations with the US after Donald Trump won the presidential election.

Yesterday, Tusk joined other European leaders in congratulating Trump.

Updated

The Australian prime minister who vowed before the last election to herald a “kinder, gentler parliament” has now hailed Australia’s rowdy, robust and combative style of political debate as proof of a functioning democracy, warning “only dictatorships pretend to be perfect”.

In remarks to a global democracy conference in Sydney a day after the United States returned Donald Trump to the presidency eschewing warnings about his autocratic style, Anthony Albanese suggested the adversarial tendencies of the Westminster political system were “a virtue, not a flaw”.

“A fierce contest can be a good thing, as long as it’s a contest about substance, about things that matter to people and issues that affect the country,” Albanese told the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, in a speech distributed in advance.

For today’s First Edition newsletter, my colleague Nimo Omer spoke with Guardian US live news editor Chris Michael about what a Donald Trump presidency might look like. Here’s a snippet:

“Autocrats are rejoicing,” Chris says about Trump’s victory. “That probably tells you all you need to know”. Trump has on many occasions praised Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un. His admiration for other strongman leaders such as Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, China’s Xi Jinping and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is well documented and long held.

Trump has said that he would end Russia’s war in Ukraine “in one day”, though he has not provided specific details on how. Expectations are that Ukraine will see a significant reduction in military aid from the US – the Trump team have made clear they have no intention of indefinitely maintaining commitment to Kyiv as the war continues to drag on.

Over on the Guardian’s business live blog, my colleague Graeme Wearden writes that the a looming new trade war triggered by Donald Trump could push the eurozone economy from sluggish growth into “a full-blown recession”.

That’s according to the investment bank ING, who fear the recession could begin even before Trump – who has said he wants to impose a 10% tariff on all non-US goods – is sworn in next January.

China warns 'no winners' in a trade war after Trump re-election

China warned on Thursday there would be “no winners in a trade war” after the re-election in the US of former president Donald Trump, who has pledged huge new tariffs on Chinese imports.

“As a matter of principle, I would like to reiterate that there will be no winners in a trade war, which is also not conducive to the world,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Asian equities mostly rose on Thursday, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP), while the dollar held gains and bitcoin hit a fresh record as markets try to ascertain the consequences of a second Donald Trump presidency after he pledged to cut taxes and ramp up tariffs with an eye on China.

According to AFP, bitcoin touched a new high just above $76,475 on optimism about the outlook for cryptocurrencies after the president-elect said on the campaign trail that he would make the US the “bitcoin and cryptocurrency capital of the world”.

Iran says Trump win a chance for US to reassess 'wrong policies'

Iran on Thursday called Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election an opportunity for the United States to reassess past mistakes, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“We have very bitter experiences with the policies and approaches of different US governments in the past,” foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA, adding Trump’s win was a chance “to review previous wrong policies”.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has spoken by phone with US president-elect Donald Trump to discuss cooperation between the two countries, the presidency said on Thursday.

Erdoğan “congratulated Trump on his election victory” and “expressed his desire to develop cooperation between Turkey and the United States in the period ahead”, it said in a statement, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Erdoğan was twice hosted at the White House by Trump during his first term, but has never been received there by current President Joe Biden.

Updated

US election results: where things stand

Donald Trump has won the election, with 295 electoral college votes, out of 270 needed for victory, and some states – the swing states of Nevada and Arizona – still to be called. Every swing state called so far has gone to Trump. Trump is also ahead in the popular vote, with 51% to Harris’s 48%.

The Republicans also have control over the senate, after picking up three members.

The House is still in play, with neither the Republicans nor the Democrats holding the 218 members needed to gain control of the chamber. The Republicans are however ahead, with 206 House representatives.

The full results are here:

China’s outbound shipments grew at the fastest pace in over two years in October, Reuters reports, as factories rushed inventory to major export markets in anticipation of further tariffs from the US and the European Union, as the threat of a two-front trade war looms.

Trump’s pre-election pledge to impose tariffs on Chinese imports in excess of 60% is likely to spur a shift in stocks to warehouses in China’s number one export market.

Trump’s tariff threat is rattling Chinese factory owners and officials, with $500bn worth of shipments annually on the line, while trade tensions with the EU, which last year took $466bn worth of Chinese goods, have intensified.

Export momentum has been one bright spot for a struggling economy as household and business confidence has been dented by a prolonged property market debt crisis.

Outbound shipments from China grew 12.7% year-on-year last month, customs data showed on Thursday, blowing past a forecast 5.2% increase in a Reuters poll of economists and a 2.4% rise in September.

Imports fell 2.3%, compared with expectations for a drop of 1.5%, turning negative for the first time in four months.

“We can anticipate a lot of front-loading going into the fourth quarter, before the pressure kicks in come 2025,” Xu Tianchen, senior economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit, told Reuters.

“I think it is mainly down to Trump. The threat is becoming more real.”

The Guardian’s Kate Lamb has taken a look at this morning’s front pages:

Donald Trump’s sweeping victory in the US presidential election saw the former president securing an unexpected majority in the popular vote, control of the Senate, and at least 295 electoral college votes – defeating vice-president Kamala Harris in a contest that dominated UK front pages on Thursday.

The Guardian led with two words: “American Dread”, a play on the American dream, alongside a close up portrait of the president-elect.

Americans awoke to a “transformed country and a rattled world” as the realisation of Trump’s stunning return to power started to sink in, wrote the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington, summing up the mood.

The Mirror highlighted a question lingering on many minds around the world about what Trump 2.0 might bring, with the headline: “What have they done…Again?

Trump’s victory, it said, had ushered in fears the Republican leader would be even “more divisive and brutal than in his first spell in the White House”.

See the full list here:

Updated

The sun is pressing through the low grey clouds above Turnberry beach in Ayrshire where Alan Ringrose is walking his dog. He shakes his head at the emerging news from across the Atlantic.

“I think America’s gone mad,” he says. “How can you elect a criminal as president?”

Disbelief is his overriding emotion as the reality of a second Trump presidency sinks in. “I don’t get it. Perhaps people were afraid to elect a black woman?”

Ringrose, who cares for the local bowling green in his retirement, gestures across the dunes to the terraced lawns of the five-star Trump Turnberry hotel. It is one of two luxury golfing resorts owned by the president-elect in Scotland; the other is in Aberdeenshire. “He has done a lot for the area, but as a politician …” Ringrose trails off.

Further down the windswept beach, Elizabeth Cogan is taking her jack russell Molly for a stroll. She is also quick to acknowledge the investment Trump has made in the local economy. But as a world leader? “It’s a total disaster: he’s a fascist, he’s against women, he’s homophobic, he’s racist. It is a shock because I thought people would have come to their senses and realised what kind of man he is.

Japanese prime minister hopes to meet with Trump this month

Japanese prime minister Shigeru Ishiba hopes to meet US president-elect Donald Trump in the United States this month, four sources said, in an attempt to emulate then-prime minister Shinzo Abe’s close ties during Trump’s first term.

The US is Japan’s most important economic and security partner, while Tokyo is a key Washington ally in Asia, providing bases that allow it to keep a large military presence on China’s doorstep.

Ishiba told reporters he had held a five-minute phone call with Trump on Thursday morning Japan time and that they agreed to meet as soon as possible.

“I felt that he was very friendly. So from now on, I have the impression that we can talk frankly,” he said.

Three of the people familiar with the planning, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, said Japan was aiming to arrange a meeting between Ishiba and Trump just after a 18-19 November summit of the Group of 20 large economies in Brazil. The fourth source said Japan was aiming to arrange the stopover “around” the G20 meeting.

Trump’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Summary

It is approaching 1am US Eastern Time. Here is where things stand on Thursday:

  • Trump has won every key swing state that has been called – Georgia, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Nevada and Arizona haven’t been called yet but appeared to be leaning Republican.

  • Republicans now have a Senate majority, which will give Trump far more leverage to enact his legislative agenda and, crucially, confirm judicial and executive nominees.

  • Control of the US House of Representatives remains unclear, with many of the most competitive races still uncalled.

  • Joe Biden, who ended his campaign for a second term in July and endorsed Kamala Harris, only to see her lose to Donald Trump yesterday, paid tribute to his vice-president in a just-released statement.

  • Donald Trump’s campaign said the president-elect had spoken to Joe Biden, and accepted his invitation for a meeting to discuss transitioning between administrations at the White House.

  • Initial analysis suggests that Black women remain the most reliable Democratic voters while Harris suffered significant losses among both Latino women and men.

  • Special counsel prosecutors will shut down their criminal cases against Donald Trump before he takes office, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

  • Abortion rights supporters celebrated a handful of victories on Tuesday night, as several states voted to enshrine protections for the procedure into their constitutions.

  • Trump has received calls and congratulations from across the globe, including from Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Benjamin Netanyahu.

  • The Obamas, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and other high-profile Democrats and progressives have released statements addressing the stunning loss.

  • The former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, who is now ambassador to the US, has deleted social media posts critical of president-elect Donald Trump to avoid the comments “being misconstrued”, officials confirmed.

  • The House speaker, Mike Johnson, is running for re-election, he announced in a letter late on Wednesday, and the House majority leader, Steve Scalise, is running for his position again. In his own letter, Scalise outlined the Republicans’ plans for their first 100 days in government. The priorities include, “lock in the Trump tax cuts”, “unleash American energy” and “surge resources to the southern border”, among other measures, Scalise writes.

  • Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday said Beijing and Washington must find a way to “get along” in a message to Trump, state media said.

  • Taiwan will help companies relocate production from China given the likely large impact on them from tariffs Trump has promised to impose on the country, Economy Minister Kuo Jyh-huei said on Thursday.

Updated

Back to how the UK government has prepared for Trump’s win: in opposition, several senior Labour MPs had vociferously criticised Trump, including David Lammy, now the foreign secretary, who labelled him a “neo-Nazi sympathizing sociopath” and “a racist KKK and Nazi sympathizer”. Many of them also opposed the then president addressing parliament while in the UK on a state visit.

But when it became clear that Trump was going to run again, Starmer instructed his aides to start repairing relations. “We all knew this election was coming and there was only one of two outcomes. The courting of both sides has been going on for a long time,” one insider said.

The civil service had also maintained relationships. Karen Pierce, the British ambassador in Washington, was in post last time Trump was in the White House and she and her team had stayed in close contact with Mar-a-Lago.

Whitehall also had four years of experience and contacts from that time, all there for Starmer to draw on when he arrived at No 10. “We feel far better prepared this time than last time round,” one official said.

It was Pierce who set up the call between the prime minister and Trump after the first assassination attempt on the Republican candidate during the election campaign. Officials had suggested writing a note, but Starmer wanted to speak to Trump in person.

She was also instrumental in arranging the dinner between the two men at Trump Tower in New York when the prime minister was at the UN in September. Trump was particularly interested in Labour’s election success in the “red wall”, perhaps seeing parallels with the US rust belt states.

Rudy Giuliani will appear in a New York City courtroom on Thursday to explain to a federal judge why he hasn’t surrendered his valuables as part of a $148m defamation judgment, the Associated Press reports.

US District Judge Lewis Liman ordered the former New York City mayor to report to court after lawyers for the two former Georgia election workers who were awarded the massive judgment visited Giuliani’s Manhattan apartment last week only to discover it had been cleared out weeks earlier.

The judge had set an 29 October deadline for the longtime ally of once-and-future President Donald Trump to surrender many of his possessions to lawyers for Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea “Shaye” Moss.

Representatives for Giuliani did not respond to an email from Reuters on Wednesday seeking comment.

Updated

No 10 believes it has done its homework for a Trump presidency

While Kemi Badenoch was the first politician since the US presidential election result to publicly challenge Keir Starmer over Labour’s previously tense relationship with Donald Trump, she is unlikely to be the last.

Yet the UK prime minister, according to government sources, is less anxious about the return of the divisive populist to the White House than the new Tory leader, and many in his own party, might have assumed.

It is true that Starmer may have found a more natural ally in Kamala Harris had she made it to the Oval Office, but his team has spent years preparing for the possibility of a Republican victory – building relationships and, crucially, bridges.

“We’re more relaxed [with the result] than people might think,” one senior official said. “Keir has already had a couple of conversations with Trump and they went very well. Trump likes winners and he sees Keir as someone who ‘won big’.”

As the election approached, the government became increasingly convinced Trump would win. “It wasn’t a huge surprise, even if it wasn’t the outcome we hoped for,” a source said. “We had been worried the Dems did not have enough of an economic offer to get Kamala over the line.”

Downing Street had gameplanned a series of outcomes for the election, depending on whether broadcasters called the race and the numbers available at any stage. They were even ready for a scenario in which Trump declared himself the victor even though the race was too close to call.

Kuo was also asked by lawmakers about concerns Trump might cancel subsidies for TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, which is investing $65bn in the US state of Arizona for new factories.

Kuo said there was a contingency plan, including helping more companies in the supply chain to move to the United States.

“It is a trend for TSMC to keep expanding its investment in the United States,” he said.

TSMC has not yet commented on concerns it may have about the subsidies. Its Taipei-listed shares rose about 1% on Thursday morning. Taiwan’s GlobalWafers, investing $4bn in the United States, told Reuters it expects the Chips and Science Act award aimed at encouraging investment by chipmakers in the United States would continue under the new US administration.

“Multi-year and decadal programs like the CHIPS Act and the agreements we have signed are regularly continued from one administration to the next,” it said in a statement on Thursday.

“We expect the CHIPS programme to be no different and run smoothly in the Trump administration.”

Taiwan will help companies relocate production from China

Taiwan will help companies relocate production from China given the likely large impact on them from tariffs incoming US President Donald Trump has promised to impose on the country, Economy Minister Kuo Jyh-huei said on Thursday.

A threat by Trump, who will take office in January, to impose 60% tariffs on US imports of Chinese goods poses major growth risks for the world’s second-largest economy.

Taiwanese companies have invested billions of dollars in China over the past four decades, taking advantage of historically lower costs, but Taiwan’s government, wary of stepped up pressure from Beijing to accept Chinese sovereignty claims, has been encouraging its firms to move investment elsewhere.

Speaking in parliament, Kuo said the impact of any Trump tariffs on China for Taiwanese firms manufacturing there would be “quite large”, Reuters reports.

“We will as soon as possible come up with help for Taiwan companies to move their production bases,” he added, without giving details.

Harris voters mourn loss after sobering concession speech: ‘There’s nothing left’

The mood was calm and sober on the Howard University campus as people waited to hear vice-president Kamala Harris’s concession speech on Wednesday afternoon. An area that is usually the central hub of campus life, the Yard, was mostly filled with Harris campaign staff, media and members of the public.

Harris appeared about 25 minutes after her scheduled time and opened with a message on unity, building community and coalitions. “My heart is full today,” Harris said. “Full of heart for my country, and full of resolve.

“Hear me when I say that the light of America’s promise will always burn bright. As long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting.”

Harris encouraged young people to acknowledge their power and to believe in the impossible. “At this time, it’s necessary that people not become complacent,” she added, “but to commit to organizing and mobilizing.” Harris encouraged her supporters to embrace “the light of optimism” and of service.

“Hear me when I say that the light of America’s promise will always burn bright. As long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting.”

Indonesia’s new leader has hailed the “immense potential” of relations with US-president-elect Donald Trump, whose first administration dropped a visa ban imposed on the former general over alleged rights abuses.

Prabowo Subianto was inaugurated last month and committed himself to a longstanding neutral foreign policy that has allowed Indonesia to maintain ties with the United States while reaping large investments from China.

“Indonesia and the United States are strategic partners who share a robust and multifaceted relationship,” he wrote on social media platform X late Wednesday.

“Our strategic partnership holds immense potential for mutual benefit, and I look forward to collaborating closely with you and your administration to further enhance this partnership and for global peace and stability.”

The 73-year-old was once barred from the US over rights abuses he allegedly committed under dictator Suharto in the late 1990s.

But the Trump administration dropped him from a visa blacklist and invited him to Washington when he was serving as defence minister in 2020, Agence France-Presse reports.

Prabowo is accused of ordering the abduction of democracy activists, some of whom were never found, but has denied any wrongdoing.

The fiery nationalist said Wednesday that he had an invitation for “an official visit to the United States” as he prepares to embark on his first foreign tour, beginning Friday in China, where he will hold talks with President Xi Jinping.

He did not confirm the dates of the US visit, or if he would meet with President Joe Biden or Trump.

The presidential palace and foreign ministry did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment.

Back to China: both Republican Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris had pledged to get tougher on Beijing.

But Trump upped the ante, vowing to slap 60% tariffs on all Chinese goods entering the United States.

That proposal could hit $500bn worth of Chinese exports, asset managers PineBridge Investments have suggested.

In his first message to Trump since the former president secured a second term in office, Chinese leader Xi said he hoped “that both sides will uphold the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation”.

Chinese vice-president Han Zheng also sent a message to vice president-elect JD Vance, CCTV said.

Democrat Raul Ruiz re-elected to House

Democratic Representative Raul Ruiz won reelection to a US House seat representing California on Wednesday. Ruiz was first elected to the House in 2012 when he defeated Republican incumbent Mary Bono.

His district encompasses all of Imperial County and parts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, including the cities of Indio, Coachella, Calexico, Hemet and Needles. A physician, Ruiz worked in the emergency department at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California. He defeated Republican Ian Weeks.

US, China must 'get along’, Xi tells Trump

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday said Beijing and Washington must find a way to “get along” in a message to US president-elect Donald Trump, state media said.

Trump’s victory heralds a possible shift in US-China relations, frayed in recent years by tensions over everything from trade to the status of the self-ruled island of Taiwan.

In a congratulatory message to Trump, Xi “pointed out that history has shown that China and the United States benefit from cooperation and suffer from confrontation”, state broadcaster CCTV said.

“A stable, healthy and sustainable China-US relationship is in the common interest of both countries and is in line with the expectations of the international community,” Xi said.

He called for Washington and Beijing to “strengthen dialogue and communication” and “properly manage differences”.

The two countries must “find a correct way … to get along in this new era, to benefit both countries and the world”, Xi said.

Opening summary

Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of the US election.

After decisively winning the presidential election, US president-elect Donald Trump will select personnel to serve under his leadership and enact policies that “make the life of Americans affordable, safe, and secure” in the days and weeks ahead, his campaign said on Wednesday.

Earlier, Kamala Harris conceded the election to Trump, delivering a speech at her alma mater, Howard University, telling supporters not to despair, and saying, “While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fuelled this campaign.”

Here are the other key recent developments:

  • Trump has won every key swing state that has been called – Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Nevada and Arizona haven’t been called yet but appeared to be leaning Republican.

  • Republicans now have a Senate majority, which will give Trump far more leverage to enact his legislative agenda and, crucially, confirm judicial and executive nominees.

  • Control of the US House of Representatives remains unclear, with many of the most competitive races still uncalled.

  • Joe Biden, who ended his campaign for a second term in July and endorsed Kamala Harris, only to see her lose to Donald Trump yesterday, paid tribute to his vice-president in a just-released statement.

  • Donald Trump’s campaign said the president-elect had spoken to Joe Biden, and accepted his invitation for a meeting to discuss transitioning between administrations at the White House.

  • Initial analysis suggests that Black women remain the most reliable Democratic voters while Harris suffered significant losses among both Latino women and men.

  • Special counsel prosecutors will shut down their criminal cases against Donald Trump before he takes office, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

  • Abortion rights supporters celebrated a handful of victories on Tuesday night, as several states voted to enshrine protections for the procedure into their constitutions.

  • Trump has received calls and congratulations from across the globe, including from Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Benjamin Netanyahu.

  • The Obamas, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and other high-profile Democrats and progressives have released statements addressing the stunning loss.

  • The former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, who is now ambassador to the US, has deleted social media posts critical of president-elect Donald Trump to avoid the comments “being misconstrued”, officials confirmed.

  • The House speaker, Mike Johnson, is running for re-election, he announced in a letter late on Wednesday, and the House majority leader, Steve Scalise, is running for his position again. In his own letter, Scalise outlined the Republicans’ plans for their first 100 days in government. The priorities include, “lock in the Trump tax cuts”, “unleash American energy” and “surge resources to the southern border”, among other measures, Scalise writes.

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