Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris tonight in a remarkable comeback that will return him to the White House, after a roller-coaster campaign during which he was indicted four times, criminally convicted and survived two assassination attempts.
This will truly be the golden age of America,” Trump told supporters in Palm Beach, FL as the Associated Press call the race for him at 11:25 p.m. PT. “America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,” he added to cheers from the self-declared “MAGA movement.”
Revealing a deeply fractured nation, Trump’s projected victory sets the stage for a bolstering of executive power and, among many, raises serious doubts about the future of American democracy.
Plunged into the campaign this summer after a debate debacle by President Joe Biden on June 27 that saw the incumbent exit the race less than a month later, the Vice President will not address her supporters or the country tonight. According to her campaign co-chair Harris is expected to speak early Wednesday in D.C.
The 45th and now 47th POTUS ran a campaign focused on illegal immigration and inflation, but he often lashed out at his political opponents, telling supporters that “I am your retribution,” and suggesting that Mark Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under him, would have deserved execution in years past.
Out on the hustle, Trump promised to be a “dictator on day one” of his presidency, focused on executive action to close the southern border and then move to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. In moves widely viewed to benefit Vladimir Putin, Trump has also sworn to end the nearly three year war quickly between Russia and a heavily USA and NATO backed Ukraine.
Trump also will face sentencing in a New York court later this month after he was convicted on 34 counts related to hush money payments made to adult actress Stormy Daniels in advance of his first presidential run in 2016.
Still, even with all that, a majority voters in key states didn’t mind Trump’s wild pronouncements and outright lies on the campaign trail, even as his rhetoric almost daily became a source of consternation and warning from experts in societal moves toward authoritarianism. In the Republican Party, the condemnation that Trump received following the January 6th attack on the Capitol gave way to embrace, even from figures like Mitch McConnell. The Senate Republican leader had all but called for Trump to face criminal prosecution over his role in the riot, but eventually endorsed him, even after the former president used racial slurs against Elaine Chao, McConnell’s wife.
Trump also ran a relentless campaign against the news media, continuing his reference to journalists as “fake news” and the “enemy of the people.” In the waning days of the campaign, the litigation-happy former president even sued CBS over the way that 60 Minutes edited an interview with Harris, not even himself, as he declined to participate in the show’s election special.
In the waning weeks of the campaign, Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, told the New York Times that he agreed that his former boss embraced fascism. Trump and his allies attacked Kelly as disgruntled, but the Harris campaign seized on the remark as further warning bells coming from administration figures who once worked for him.
At 78, Trump is the oldest person ever elected to the presidency. He’s also the first person to be elected to a non-consecutive term since Grover Cleveland, who was president from 1885-1889 and from 1893-1897.
But his presidency is widely seen as one in which he will try to install loyalists throughout his administration, most importantly at the Justice Department. Special Counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election, as well as in his handling of classified documents after he left the White House. The future of those cases is now uncertain.
Trump and Harris each tapped celebrity support in their presidential campaigns. Hulk Hogan and Tucker Carlson spoke at the Republican National Convention, and Elon Musk shoveled millions into the race for Trump. With that, Trump’s perhaps biggest endorsement came at the end, when Joe Rogan said that he supported the former president.
Leading Harris surrogate and billionaire in his right, Mark Cuban acknowledged Trump’s victory even before Fox News and NewsNation called the race for him, and long before the AP did.
That said, Trump and Republicans have near record-low support from entertainment industry donors. Just 11.9% of contributions went to GOP candidates this cycle, or $9 million, compared to almost 87% to Democrats, or $66.42 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
RELATED: Kamala Harris Celebrity Endorsements: A List Of Celebrities Supporting The VP
Trump’s victory came after his campaign, at least until the final weeks, was regarded as more disciplined, run by political professionals Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita. But a rally at Madison Square Garden, fulfilling one of Trump’s dreams, instead became a crisis for the campaign. Warm-up speakers made racist and sexist remarks, including one speaker who referred to Harris as a prostitute, and another, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico a pile of “garbage.”
What Trump had going for him was a low public approval of the Biden-Harris administration. Trump’s campaign sought to tie Harris to the president, seizing on a remark she made on The View in which she was asked what she would do differently from Biden. She could not think of anything — a misstep in an election where voters want change.
His campaign also was relentless in ads warning of Harris’ liberal position, including those that highlighted her support in 2019 of gender-affirming care for incarcerated people. When asked about it Harris said, “I follow the law.” She also noted that Trump did too when he was president – the first time round.
