Donald Trump wins White House in historic political comeback

Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States on Wednesday, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who refused to accept defeat four years ago.

With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency.

The victory validates his bare-knuckle approach to politics. He countered his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, with an apocalyptic picture of a country overrun by violent migrants under her administration. 

“I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected your 47th president and your 45th president,” Trump told throngs of cheering supporters in Florida.

In state after state, Trump outperformed what he did in the 2020 election while Harris failed to do as well as Joe Biden did in winning the presidency four years ago.

Upon taking office again, Trump also will work with a Senate that will now be in Republican hands, while control of the House hadn’t been determined.

The results cap a historically tumultuous and competitive election season that included two assassination attempts targeting Trump and a shift to a new Democratic nominee just a month before the party’s convention.

Trump will inherit a range of challenges when he assumes office on Jan. 20, including an open border, high inflation and involvement in foreign conflicts.

His win against Harris, the first woman of color to lead a major party ticket, marks the second time he has defeated a female rival in a general election. Harris, the current vice president, rose to the top of the ticket after Biden exited the race amid alarm about his advanced age. Despite an initial surge of energy around her campaign, she struggled during a compressed timeline to convince disillusioned voters that she represented a break from an unpopular administration.

Harris has not publicly spoken since the race was called. Her campaign co-chair, Cedric Richmond, said she would speak Wednesday: “She will be back here tomorrow.”

Trump is the first former president to return to power since Grover Cleveland regained the White House in the 1892 election. At 78, he is the is the oldest person elected to the office. His vice president, 40-year-old Ohio Sen. JD Vance, will become the highest-ranking member of the millennial generation in the U.S. government.




(AP Photo Evan Vucci)