US Vice President Kamala Harris called Trump to congratulate him, one of her senior aides said, following a bitter and contentious race.
“It’s a political victory that our country has never seen before,” the president-elect told supporters overnight in Florida.
Supporters chanted “USA!” as the 78-year-old added that his “magnificent” win would “allow us to make America great again”.
World leaders swiftly pledged to work with Trump, led by Israel and Ukraine where the course of raging conflicts could depend on the new president and his isolationist “America First” policies. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first to speak to him. Harris, who only entered the race in July after President Joe Biden dropped out, ran a centrist campaign that highlighted Trump’s inflammatory messaging and use of racist and sexist tropes.But his apocalyptic warnings about immigration found their mark with voters battered by the post-Covid economy and eager for change after the Biden years.
Hispanic and Black Americans were seen as crucial voting blocs for Harris, but exit polls showed they tilted toward Trump in numbers far greater than in 2020.
Opinion polls predicted a nail-bitingly close contest-yet the results came surprisingly fast, including Trump’s flipping of key swing states that Biden won four years ago.
He appeared on track to win the popular vote too-the first time he has done so in three presidential runs. Trump is the first president in more than a century to win a non-consecutive second term.
He is also the only person to be elected as a convicted felon-he will face sentencing in a New York court for fraud on November 26.