Donald Trump is headed back to the White House after defeating Vice President Kamala Harris following a campaign where he vowed to retaliate against his critics and to carry out the largest mass deportation of immigrants in U.S. history.
As of this broadcast, Trump had secured at least 277 electoral votes, surpassing the 270 needed to win the presidency. Harris has 224 electoral votes. The race was called for Trump after he won the critical swing states of Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Trump is also leading in Michigan, Nevada and Arizona.

Trump is the first convicted felon — and at 78 years, the oldest candidate — ever elected president. He appears on pace to win the popular vote for the first time after receiving fewer votes than Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. Trump spoke at his Mar-a-Lago resort early Wednesday morning and said he had won an “unprecedented and powerful mandate.”

President-elect Donald Trump: “Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason. And that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness.”

Trump’s running mate JD Vance described Trump’s victory as the “greatest political comeback in the history of the United States.” Attendees at Trump’s victory party included tech billionaire Elon Musk, who spent at least $119 million to help get Trump elected. Trump is poised to join Grover Cleveland as the only former president to lose reelection and then return to the White House four years later.
Trump won despite warnings from many of his former Cabinet members that he was unfit for office in part for attempting to overturn the 2020 election.
On election night, Kamala Harris did not address supporters who had gathered for a watch party at her alma mater Howard University, the historically Black university.