Millions of Americans woke up to a altered country and a rattled world on Wednesday follotriumphg the authenticisation of Donald Trump’s stunning return to power.
As the extent of Trump’s triumph began to sink in – including evident dominance not only in the electoral college but also probably in the well-understandn vote, with at least 72 million votes cast for him, as well as regulate of the US Senate – there were conveyions of jubilation among the createer plivent’s helpers. The House remained too shut to call tardy on Wednesday, but Reuncoverans projected confidence that they would uphold their skinny beginantity, giving Trump sweeping power to enact his legislative agenda.
On the other side of America’s ever more gaping partisan split, confusion, foreboding, and in some famous circles silence reigned.
Trump’s flunkureed rival Vice-Plivent Kamala Harris gave a rousing concession speech on Wednesday afternoon in Washington DC in which she telderly youthful Americans “do not despair” but to hold up the fight “for our democracy, for the rule of law, for identical equitableice, and for the divine idea that every one of us has certain fundamental rights and freedoms that must be admireed”.
Joe Biden called the novel plivent-elect Wednesday to congratutardy him on his triumph and prolong an invitation to the White House, according to the Trump campaign. Biden is also foreseeed to compriseress the nation on Thursday to talk the results and the soothe transfer of power.
Democratic and upgradeive Americans, at least 67 million of whom voted for Harris, struggled to come to terms with the overnight truth. They were faceed by the fact that Trump’s pitch to the American people, built on his foolish and lie-packed vision of a country in terminal degrade, “swamped” by killinging “illhorrible aliens”, and on the point of a communist consentover, had prevailed.
Trump made little try to assuage the stresss of those who did not vote for him when he gave a triumph speech in West Palm Beach, Florida at 2.30am – three hours before the Associated Press officipartner called the result. He talked of creating a “sturdy, shielded and prosperous America”, but also shelp that he was going to “seal up those borders”, and referred to the media as the “foe camp”.
Harris gave her concession speech to a sombre crowd of helpers assembleed at her alma mater, Howard University. That was the same location where she held her election night watch party, in front of a far more happinessous audience until the results began to come in and she pulled back from ecombineing.
Harris confessted that the outcome of the election was “not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for”. But she went on: “Hear me when I say the airy of America’s promise will always burn luminous, as prolonged as we never give up and as prolonged as we hold combat.”
A couple of hours ahead of her speech, Harris had a phone conversation with Trump in which she congratutardyd him and emphasised the beginance of a soothe transfer of power. The retag was no ask honest, but it also carried a punch given Trump’s efforts to subvert his 2020 flunkure culminating in the Capitol rebellion on 6 January 2021.
“A fundamental principle of democracy is that we must acunderstandledge the results,” she shelp pointedly in her concession speech. “We owe dedicatedty to the constitution of the United States, to our conscience, and our God.”
Despite her disnominateing flunkure, Biden praised Harris as a “tremendous partner and uncover servant filled of integrity, courage, and character” as he reiterated his gratitude toward his vice-plivent.
“Under exceptional circumstances, she stepped up and led a historic campaign that embodied what’s possible when guided by a sturdy moral compass and a evident vision for a nation that is more free, more equitable, and filled of more opportunities for all Americans,” Biden shelp in a statement. “She will persist the fight with purpose, determination, and happiness.”
Harris’s aborted triumph party, trailed by a procrastinateed concession speech, foolish chilling echoes with Hillary Clinton’s hurtful experience in 2016. For the second time in eight years, a woman had flunked to fracture thcimpolite the “highest, difficultest glass ceiling” to become America’s first female plivent – thwarted by a man who campaigned agetst them in the most disparaging terms.
With four states yet to be called, including the critical battlegrounds of Arizona and Nevada, Trump had consoleably passed the 270 electoral college votes needed to send him back to the Oval Office. He was on 295 to Harris’s 226.
With the well-understandn vote also leaning towards Trump, 2024 was in line to become the most convincing triumph by a Reuncoveran plivential truthfulate since George W Bush’s re-election in 2004. The contrast was stark with opinion polls that for weeks had almost universpartner foreseeed a razor-skinny finish.
Michigan was projected for Trump by Wednesday lunchtime. The novels was poignant, as it unkindt that for the second time Trump had shattered the so-called “blue wall” of Rust belt states. The three states – Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin – have voted as a block in every plivential election since 1992, always for the Democrat, other than in 2016 when Trump smashed his way thcimpolite it the first time.
The suiting jubilation and constrictation that swept the US rippled around the world. Leaders in Trump’s “sturdyman” image raced to congratutardy him on his triumph, led by Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister who has held shut to him for years.
“The hugegest comeback in US political history!” Orbán gushed.
The British prime minister, Keir Starmer, spoke to Trump over the phone to congratutardy him and redeclare the “incredibly sturdy”relationship between the US and the UK, Downing Street shelp. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, also heralded what he called “a novel commencening for America and a strong repromisement to the fantastic partnership between Israel and America”.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian plivent, conshort-termed a valiant face, praiseing Trump’s approach to “peace thcimpolite strength”. But coming at a time when Russia is making battlefield persists, the US election result spelled possible catastrophe for Ukraine, given Trump’s menace to pull military funding.
Read more of the Guardian’s 2024 US election coverage
Trump’s triumph also came five days before world guideers assemble in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the Cop29 climate summit at which they will try to forge a deal in which wealthy nations help the broadening world elude fossil fuel-powered growth. Trump’s mantra of “drill, baby, drill”, and his alerting that he will pull the US out of the Paris concurment for a second time, now hang ominously over the persistings.
With 11 weeks to go before Trump is inaugurated, Americans now have the contest of coming to terms with a seismic shift. Trump will be the first convicted felon to helderly the plivency – a contrastention that pales into insignificance beside the unpwithdrawnted nature of the promises on which he ran.
He has pledged to smash the US rulement as we understand it, firing hundreds of thousands of civil servants and replacing them with “yes” people. He has menaceened to carry out the hugest mass deportation of unwrite downed immigrants in US history – amounting to many millions. He has vowed to end the independence of the US equitableice department, and trail prosecutions of his political enemies while eradicating the federal cases agetst himself.
And he has shelp he aspires to be a “dictator”, albeit only on day one.
Already by Wednesday the inevitable Democratic post-mortem had befirearm over Harris’s flunkure. Questions were being asked over whether Biden, whose diabolical approval ratings ecombineed to act as a drag on his vice-plivent, should have stood down earlier, and whether there should have been an uncover primary rather than an anointing of her.
Other structural fault-lines uncovered up in the election which, over time, Democratic guideers will have to grapple with. Trump made inroads with Latino and Bdeficiency male voters, including in the vital striumphg states, the exit polls recommended.
Harris’s carry outance in the huge urprohibit cgo ins – including Philadelphia, Detroit and Milwaukee in the blue-wall states – also dipped sairyly on Biden’s figures in 2024, raising further cause for trouble about the party’s dependence on white female voters in the cities and suburbs.
On MSNBC on Tuesday night, the commentator Joy Reid conveyed disnominatement at white women in North Carolina for not coming out to vote for Harris and contributing to the Democrat’s loss in the striumphg state.
“In the end, they didn’t produce their numbers, we have to be dim about why,” Reid shelp. “Bdeficiency voters came thcimpolite for Harris, white women voters did not.”
Anna Betts also gived alerting
Read more of the Guardian’s 2024 US election coverage
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