Republican candidate Donald Trump was announced as the winner of the US election on Wednesday, marking his return to the White House as the 47th president after a tightly contested campaign.
Trump secured over 270 electoral votes, surpassing the threshold needed to defeat his opponent, Democratic candidate and current Vice President Kamala Harris.
In the US electoral system, the president is elected by the Electoral College, which consists of 538 delegates representing the states based on their population.
The candidate who wins in each state, even by a single vote, receives all of that state’s delegates, except in Nebraska and Maine. The first candidate to reach 270 electoral votes wins the election.
Before the final results were announced, Trump had already declared victory over Harris during a rally in Palm Beach, Florida, buoyed by favorable preliminary results and his lead in the popular vote.
This marks the first time in over a century that a former president returns to office after losing an election (he previously served from 2017 to 2021) and the first instance of a convicted criminal assuming the presidency. In his speech from Palm Beach, surrounded by family and campaign staff, Trump promised to govern for all Americans, stating that “together” they would create a better United States.
“Success will unite us, and we will begin by prioritizing America. I will not disappoint you,” he declared during a speech lasting under thirty minutes at the Palm Beach Convention Center.
The former president expressed gratitude to his family and the American people in a largely conciliatory address, urging them to move past the divisions of recent years. Trump celebrated significant victories in key states like North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and proudly noted that Republicans regained control of the Senate.
