The votes have been counted and verified – and Donald Trump is heading back to the White House.
Despite an assassination attempt during his campaign, 78-year-old Trump was hailed the winner after polls predicted it would be a close battle with the vice president Kamala Harris, who took over the Democrat campaign from Joe Biden.
Trump gained a conclusive lead overnight and this morning he has passed the threshold of 270 electoral college votes, making him the 47th president of the United States.
Kentucky was the first state to declare Trump the winner but the balance was tipped in his favour after Florida declared him the winning candidate an hour later. He also won in battleground states North Carolina, Georgia and Wisconsin.
Harris kept hold of New York and New Jersey but is yet to conceed or address supporters, with dejected crowds leaving her Washington DC watch party before the final result came in.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and UK prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, were among the first world leaders to congratulate Trump, as he became the oldest person elected to the office.
Sir Starmer said: “I look forward to working with Trump in the years ahead. From growth and security to innovation and tech, I know that the UK-US special relationship will continue to prosper on both sides of the Atlantic for years to come.”
In his victory speech, Trump said: “We have thousands of friends in this incredible movement. And frankly this, I believe, was the greatest political movement of all time in this country and maybe beyond.
“Now we’re going to help our country heal. We have a country that needs help. We’re going to fix our borders. We made history for a reason. We overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible, and look what happened, is this crazy? This will be the golden age of America.”
Elon Musk, CEO of X, got a shout-out from Trump, described as a “new star” of the Republican Party, while running mate JD Vance described Trump’s win as “the greatest political comeback ever.”
Some of the promises Trump made during his campaign, included to “end inflation and make America affordable again”. He said he would expand US energy production and open areas such as the Arctic wilderness to oil drilling to lower energy costs.
He suggested trillions of dollars’ worth of tax cuts, including an extension of ones he enacted in 2017, geared towards the wealthy. Trump says that he will pay for cuts through higher growth and tariffs on imports.
Immigration was a major issue and he promised to seal the US’s border by completing construction of the wall he promised to build between the US and Mexico during his last presidency. He also vowed to enact the biggest mass deportation of undocumented migrants in US history.
