Trump declares victory on cusp of historic White House comeback

BBC

Donald Trump has declared victory over Kamala Harris in the US presidential election, as he stands on the cusp of a historic political comeback.

The Republican told ecstatic supporters in Florida that they would usher in “a new golden age for America”.

He needs just one more state to officially take him over the winning threshold of 270 electoral college votes, according to projections by the BBC’s US partner CBS. He would be the first former president to return to the White House in more than 130 years.

In more good news for Trump, his party is projected to win majority control of the Senate.

Accompanied by his family and his pick for vice-president, JD Vance, Trump told supporters in West Palm Beach on Wednesday morning: “This will truly be the golden age of America – that’s what we have to have.

“This is a magnificent victory for the American people that will allow us to make America great again.”

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and Trump mega-donor, was with the Republican candidate as the results came in. The billionaire posted increasingly positive message on X – which he owns – throughout the night.

Trump could be on track for a clean sweep of the seven swing states needed to win the White House and he might even win the overall popular vote nationally – a feat he fell short of when first elected in 2016.

He is projected to win Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia. CBS says Wisconsin is leaning towards the Republican and he is ahead in the other so-called Rust Belt state of Michigan. Certified final results take days to come.

Trump also has a solid lead in Nevada, while the race remains tight in the other Sun Belt battleground of Arizona.

As expected, Trump has swept conservative strongholds from Florida to Idaho, while Harris won liberal states from New York to California, CBS projects.

The Democrat had been expected to address a crowd on election night at Howard University in Washington DC, where she was an undergraduate, but it emerged after midnight that she would not appear. Harris has made no statement so far.

Following the announcement by Democratic campaign co-chairman Cedric Richmond, the crowd all but disappeared from Harris HQ at the historically black college.

CBS exit poll data suggests Vice-President Harris – who was hoping to become America’s first woman president and campaigned heavily for abortion rights – may have under-performed with women.

Some 54% of female voters cast their ballots for her, the numbers indicate. But Joe Biden won the support of 57% of women in 2020.

Black and Latino voters also appeared slightly less likely to support Harris than they were to back Biden four years ago, according to Associated Press exit poll data.

Instead, Trump swept the key battleground states and would become America’s oldest president. The Republican has refused to release his medical records, despite spending much of his early campaign attacking President Joe Biden’s advancing age.

Congress is also up for grabs in the election.

In what would be a major boost for a Trump presidency, CBS projects Republicans will win control of the Senate after wresting two seats in West Virginia and Ohio from the Democrats and seeing off a competitive challenger in Texas.

Neither party seemed to have an overall edge in the House, which Republicans narrowly control.

However, control of Congress would allow Trump a relatively easy path to pass his key proposals through the legislature – including his pledges to enforce mass deportations of illegal migrants and to enact sweeping tax cuts.

Around 86 million voters cast their ballots early amid one of the most turbulent campaigns in recent American history.

Harris, 60, only became the Democratic Party candidate in July, after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race under pressure from within the party.

Trump, 78, was the target of two assassination plots – narrowly avoiding a sniper’s bullet in Pennsylvania in July.

His victory marks a dramatic reversal in fortunes for the billionaire. He left office in 2021 with low approval ratings and the country reeling following the Capitol riot – which saw his supporters attempt to block to certification of his loss to Joe Biden.

He narrowly avoided conviction in the Senate after becoming the first president to be impeached twice by the US House. The Republican leader in the Senate – Mitch McConnell – said Trump had “provoked” his supporters into attacking the Capitol.

He later became the first former president to be convicted of a criminal offence, after being found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records.

But he announced his return to frontline politics in November 2022, beginning the campaign that would see him sweep aside challengers in the Republican primaries and claim his party’s nomination for president.

Attention in the coming days will turn to the make-up of his potential cabinet, with senior advisers telling CBS that the Trump transition team are to meet at West Palm Beach in the coming days.

At his victory rally, Trump hinted that Robert F Kennedy Jr – a former Democrat and vaccine-sceptic – would be handed a key healthcare role.

“He’s to help make America healthy again,” Trump said. “He wants to do some things, and we’re going to let him go to it.”

Both sides have armies of lawyers on standby for legal challenges on and after election day.

Law enforcement agencies nationwide were on high alert for potential violence, but it has been peaceful so far.

About 30 bomb threats hoaxes targeted election-related locations nationwide on Tuesday, more than half of them in the state of Georgia alone, reports CBS.