2024 US Election results: Donald Trump reacts to major victory

Donald Trump has vowed to “end wars” and heal America after he triumphed over Kamala Harris to become the 47th US president in a stunning comeback where he defied everything.

Donald Trump has triumphed over Kamala Harris to become the 47th US president, capping a stunning comeback in which he defied everything from criminal charges to assassination attempts.

In a speech in Florida where the crowd chanted “USA”, Mr Trump said: “This was the greatest political movement of all time. There has never been anything like this in our country.

“We’re going to help our country heal.

“We’re going to fix our borders, we’re going to fix our country.”

Mr Trump added: “This will truly be the golden age of America.

“This is a magnificent victory for the American people that will allow us to make America great again.”

Mr Trump said by his tally he would have 315 electoral college votes.

“We have also won the popular vote. That was great,” he said.

“A great feeling of love in this very large room.”

The former president was declared the victor of an extraordinary election and will now return to power on January 20 as only the second man to serve two non-consecutive terms in the White House.

Four years ago, the celebrity real estate mogul’s political career appeared doomed, after he was narrowly defeated by Joe Biden and then tried to overturn the result, sparking chaos that culminated in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.

The Republican retreated to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and re-established himself as the party’s de facto leader, before announcing two years ago that he would run for president for a third time.

Mr Trump was challenged by a new generation of Republicans for the nomination, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley.

They were emboldened by the unprecedented legal peril that engulfed him last year. No US president had ever been charged with a crime before Mr Trump was indicted four times in five months.

He was arrested and arraigned for the first time in New York, his former hometown, where he was accused of falsifying business records to cover up $US130,000 in hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels, silencing her claim that they had an affair before the 2016 election.

Mr Trump was then charged with mishandling classified files after leaving the White House, before being hit with federal and state charges over his bid to subvert his defeat in 2020.

But each bombshell only bolstered Mr Trump’s poll position, and when the Republican Party held its primary elections earlier this year, he blitzed the field by record margins.

The 78-year-old avoided going to trial in three of the cases against him, and will now be able to follow through on his promise to fire the special counsel who laid the federal charges.

While he was convicted in the Manhattan Criminal Court, his lawyers are expected to pull at all stops to delay his sentencing hearing that had been scheduled for November 26.

Mr Trump built a steady lead during the general election over Mr Biden, only for the President to be forced to drop out after his disastrous debate performance in late June.

That propelled the Vice President to the top of the Democratic ticket, and she turned it into a neck-and-neck race in her bid to become the first female president. Mr Trump, however, was favoured by the Biden-Harris administration’s failures on inflation and illegal immigration.

He also won over voters with his defiant response to being shot in the ear at a rally in July, an instantly iconic moment in which he pumped his fist and shouted: “Fight, fight, fight!”

Mr Trump later narrowly avoided a second assassination attempt while playing golf in Florida, as well as an ongoing plot by the Iranian regime to kill him.

Should he serve his full four-year term back in the White House after taking over from Mr Biden, Mr Trump will break his records as the oldest president in American history.

*We are tracking results through Reuters and the Fox Decision Desk.

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Originally published as 2024 US Election results: Donald Trump reacts to major victory