Donald John Trump has been elected the United State’s 47th president, He will be returning to the White House, just four years after being defeated in 2020 by Joe Biden.
The Republican defeated Vice President Kamala Harris by promising to curb inflation, crack down on undocumented immigrants and end overseas conflicts. Trump achieved an electoral college majority by maintaining his majorities with men and White voters without college degrees, while also overperforming with historic Democratic constituencies such as Latinos and young voters, according to preliminary exit polls. Trump was projected early Wednesday as the winner of the election, according to the Associated Press and Edison Research.
To Trump and his supporters, retaking power after failing to overturn his 2020 election loss, inspiring a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, and withstanding two impeachments, four criminal indictments, a conviction and two assassination attempts represents a major vindication for their cause. Trump’s pledges to exercise unrestrained authority alarmed millions of other Americans, including some of his former advisers, who warned he would govern like a dictator and met the definition of a fascist.
Harris struggled to distance herself from President Joe Biden, whom she replaced on the ticket after a June debate in which he sometimes appeared confused. Her campaign emphasized abortion rights, promised generational change and portrayed Trump as dangerous and unstable. But as the sitting vice president, she was unable to outrun broad disapproval of the incumbent president and made strategic errors, some Democrats said, such as saying she didn’t disagree with Biden on any topic.
Trump reclaimed at least three of the states he lost in 2020: Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Michigan, Arizona and Nevada remained too close to call early Wednesday. Trump is on pace to win the national popular vote, though that will depend on Harris’s final margin in California.
The Republican’s campaign attacked Harris by linking her to widespread dissatisfaction with Biden’s handling of rising prices and foreign conflicts, and depicting her as further left than the country, especially on health care for transgender people. Trump demeaned her personally, at times using racist stereotypes or sexist attacks. For the second time in eight years, voters chose Trump over electing the country’s first woman president.
