Republican Donald Trump proclaimed his victory in the hotly contested 2024 presidential election shortly after Fox News forecast his defeat of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, marking an astonishing political resurgence four years after his White House exit. "America has entrusted us with an unparalleled and formidable authority," he declared early Wednesday to a jubilant throng of supporters at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, surrounded by his vice presidential nominee, Senator JD Vance, Republican leaders, and members of his family.
He also took a few moments to lavish praise on Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest individual, who had injected approximately $120 million into Trump's campaign coffers. Trump hinted at appointing Musk to head a government efficiency commission. Although other news outlets hadn't officially declared Trump the winner, he seemed poised for victory, having secured key battleground states like Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia, while maintaining leads in the remaining four, according to Edison Research.
Harris, meanwhile, remained silent among her supporters gathered at her alma mater, Howard University. Her campaign co-chair, Cedric Richmond, briefly addressed the crowd past midnight, announcing that Harris would address the public on Wednesday. "There are still votes to tally," he emphasized.
The former president exhibited robust support across vast stretches of the nation, outperforming his 2020 showing in both rural and urban areas. Republicans secured a Senate majority by flipping Democratic seats in West Virginia and Ohio. The battle for control of the House of Representatives, where Republicans currently hold a narrow majority, appeared evenly matched, with neither party gaining a clear advantage.
Heading into Election Day, Trump had a 50-50 chance of reclaiming the presidency—a remarkable turnaround from January 6, 2021, when many pundits declared his political career over. On that fateful day, a mob of his supporters violently stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election results.
According to Edison's exit polls, Trump garnered more support from Hispanics, traditionally Democratic voters, and lower-income households that have acutely felt the pinch of inflation since the last presidential election in 2020. Nationally, Trump won 45% of Hispanic voters, trailing Harris's 53% but up 13 percentage points from 2020.
Roughly 31% of voters cited the economy as their top issue, overwhelmingly voting for Trump by a 79%-to-20% margin. Approximately 45% of voters nationwide stated that their family's financial situation was worse now than four years ago, favoring Trump by 80% to 17%.
Late Tuesday, global investors increasingly factored in a Trump victory. U.S. stock futures and the dollar surged, while Treasury yields climbed and bitcoin rallied—all moves flagged by analysts and investors as favorable to a Trump win.
Regardless of the election's outcome, history was in the making. At 78, Trump, the only president to be impeached twice and the first former president to be criminally convicted, stood poised to become the first president in over a century to win non-consecutive terms and the oldest presidential candidate ever elected.
Trump garnered a more substantial portion of the electorate's favor compared to his performance four years prior, spanning nearly every region of the nation. By the stroke of 12:30 a.m. ET, authorities had almost finalized the tally of ballots in over 1,600 counties—approximately half of the country's total—revealing that Trump's share had soared by approximately 2 percentage points compared to 2020. This shift, though perhaps not profoundly deep, indicated a widespread reversal in American support for the president whom they had rejected four years earlier.
He witnessed an improvement in his vote tally in suburban counties, rural areas, and even some large cities traditionally fortified by Democratic loyalty; in both high-income and low-income counties; and in locations where unemployment was either relatively high or now at unprecedented lows. Harris had pinned her hopes on substantial margins among urban and suburban voters, but her support in those demographics lagged significantly behind President Joe Biden's in the 2020 election.
According to exit polls, nearly three-quarters of voters perceived American democracy as under siege, highlighting the profound polarization in a nation where divisions have only become more stark during this fiercely contested race. Trump resorted to increasingly doom-laden rhetoric, fostering unfounded apprehensions about the election system's integrity. Harris cautioned that a second Trump administration would undermine the foundations of American democracy.
Hours before polling stations closed, Trump, without providing evidence, alleged on his Truth Social platform that there was "much chatter about massive cheating" in Philadelphia, echoing his baseless fraud claims in 2020 targeting large, Democratic-leaning cities. In a subsequent post, he also accused Detroit of electoral fraud.
"I don't dignify nonsense with a response," Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey told Reuters. A Philadelphia city commissioner, Seth Bluestein, replied on X, "There is absolutely no truth to this assertion."
Trump cast his vote earlier near his Palm Beach, Florida, residence. "If I lose an election, and it's a fair one, I'll be the first to acknowledge it," Trump assured reporters.
Millions of Americans queued up orderly to cast their ballots, with only occasional disruptions reported across a few states, including several non-credible bomb threats that the FBI traced back to Russian email domains. Tuesday's vote brought to a close a mesmerizing race marked by unprecedented events, including two assassination attempts on Trump, Biden's unexpected withdrawal, and Harris' meteoric rise.
