Donald Trump in shock return to White House after election win over Kamala Harris

Washington: Donald Trump has become the first convicted criminal to win the White House, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris by broadening his coalition of voters through a campaign of fear centred on illegal immigrants, the economy and transgender people.

After an election campaign marked by extraordinary upheaval and violence – including his own near-death experience – the majority of American voters appeared set to give Trump a second term in a severe repudiation of the Biden-Harris administration.

Donald Trump, joined by Melania Trump and Barron Trump, arrives to speak at his election night watch party.Credit: AP

“This will forever be remembered as the day the American people regained control of their country,” Trump said on stage at his campaign headquarters in Palm Beach, Florida.

The victory sent shockwaves through the Democratic Party, which had entered election day feeling confident that Harris’ positive vision and emphasis on issues such as reproductive rights would galvanise voters – and in particular women – and help her secure victory.

Trump’s core constituency of mostly white, working-class voters in rural America showed up in force, winning him the critical battlegrounds of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia. He also picked up Iowa – three days after one of the nation’s most respected polls found him trailing Harris by three points.

But Trump also outperformed with black voters, Latinos and young men who were genuinely dissatisfied with issues such as cost-of-living pressures and illegal immigration.

Harris is yet to concede defeat after underperforming in several states, opting not to appear at her own election night party at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington, DC, where thousands of people had gathered for what they hoped would be a history-making victory.

“America will be bigger, better, bolder, richer, safer and stronger than it’s ever been before.”Credit: AP

“We will continue overnight to fight to make sure that every vote is counted, that every voice has spoken,” campaign chair Cedric Richmond assured them. “So you won’t hear from the vice president tonight, but you will hear from her tomorrow.”

Earlier, jubilant college kids had danced on the lawn as R&B blasted through the speakers.

“I’m feeling really excited; we’re witnessing history at our school, and it’s just amazing to see a black woman to be able to be in this height of power,” said student Kai Taylor.

But within hours, Trump had claimed victory, becoming only the second president to win re-election after a loss, in one of the most extraordinary political comebacks in history.

“This is karma, ladies and gentlemen!” shouted UFC president Dana White from the stage in Florida.

“Nobody deserves this more than his family does. This is what happens when the machine comes after you. Couldn’t stop him. He keeps going forward. He’s the most resilient man I’ve ever met in my life!”

Trump is due to be sentenced on November 26 for falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal with porn star Stormy Daniels. He was also meant to face trial in Georgia for election interference in that state, and Washington, DC, for the events leading up to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Republican vice-president-elect J.D. Vance and his wife Usha Vance (left), with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner during Donald Trump’s speech.Credit: AP

But Trump’s performance capped one of the most fiercely contested and turbulent presidential campaigns in modern history, tapping into voters’ fears about an “invasion” of illegal immigrants, crime, inflation, and “biological men in women’s sports.”

The campaign was also one of the most violent, with two assassination attempts against the former president, bomb threats on polling centres from foreign actors, and attacks on ballot drop boxes across the country.

“I said that many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason,” Trump said. “And that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness, and now we are going to fulfil that mission together.

“The task will not be easy, but I will bring every ounce of energy, spirit, and fight that I have in my soul to the job that you have entrusted to me.”

At 78, Trump is the oldest person elected to the office. His vice presidential nominee, 40-year-old J.D. Vance, will become the highest-ranking member of the Millennial generation in the US government.

“I think we just witnessed the greatest political comeback in the history of the United States of America,” Vance told the crowd.

Trump is now expected to give vaccine sceptic Robert F. Kennedy a role in his administration overseeing health.

Tesla billionaire Elon Musk, who bankrolled much of Trump’s campaign, will also be appointed to a role reducing government red tape and expenditure.

The two candidates could not have offered a more different vision. Trump painted a bleak picture of a nation “destroyed” under the Biden-Harris administration, promising to embark on “the biggest deportation program” in history to get rid of illegal immigrants, an immediate expansion of gas and oil drilling, and tariffs on all imported goods.

Abortion was an issue that Harris campaigned heavily on, along with populist economic policies targeting middle-class families, such as building more affordable homes, banning price gouging and expanding child tax credits, and one which brought millions of women to the polls.

The election was also the first to take place after the deadly January 6 attack at the US Capitol and the first to be held after Trump’s conservative judges on the US Supreme Court overturned federal abortion rights in America.

She also sought to make the election a referendum on Trump and a chance to turn the page on years of chaos, anger and distrust.

Supporters erupt in cheers at the Trump election party in Florida.Credit: AP

But Harris struggled to differentiate herself from Biden, faced an ongoing backlash over the war in Gaza, fractures in the support of black and Latino voters, and failed to get enough people to show up at the polls despite a sweeping mobilisation effort and a string of high-profile surrogates and endorsements.

And Trump banked his campaign on turning out new voters – particularly white and black men. In some parts of the country, it seems to have worked.

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.