US election results 2024 LIVE updates: Trump announces Susie Wiles as chief of staff, set to claim Arizona, Nevada after defeating Harris

As we head into the US night, that’s where we’ll leave today’s rolling coverage of the 2024 presidential election. Here’s a summary of what happened on the second day of fallout from Donald Trump’s victory.

• President-elect Donald Trump named his co-campaign chief, Susie Wiles, as his White House chief of staff.
• President Joe Biden gave a live address to the nation in which he praised Kamala Harris, promised a peaceful transition of power, and claimed the result laid to rest doubts about the integrity of the electoral system.
• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed more details of his call with Donald Trump on Thursday, calling it a “warm” and “productive” conversation in which they discussed meeting in person soon.
• Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says there’s “an eerie parallel” between Australian and US voter sentiment over the cost of living.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Donald Trump, calling him “a brave man” and welcoming his desire to “help end the Ukrainian crisis”.
• Meanwhile, with the count still under way for the House of Representatives, the Democrats’ House leader, Hakeem Jeffries, issued a statement saying there was still a path to a majority.

President-elect Donald Trump on election night with his campaign co-chair Susie Wiles, who he has named as his chief of staff.Credit: Getty Images

At the world’s biggest trade expo in Shanghai, as thousands of businesses jostled for a foothold in the lucrative Chinese market, there was no obvious sign of the consequential election unfolding thousands of kilometres away and the new trade war it could usher in.

Countless TVs blared garish ads for products and wares across 360,000 square metres of brightly lit convention floors at the China International Import Expo this week – a mini-city of commercialism that pops up annually and attracts some 150 countries, including Australia.

But none seemed to be broadcasting the American people’s decision to return Donald Trump to the White House – a victory he has promised will reshape global trade through a new era of US protectionism that will reverberate around the globe.

Trump has pledged to slap an across-the-board 60 per cent tariff on Chinese imports, as well as 10 to 20 per cent tariffs on all other imported goods – a blanket measure that threatens to sweep up Australian products too.

Many economists are concerned a new trade war between the world’s two biggest economies will have flow-on consequences for Australia, including potentially slowing China’s growth and dampening demand for Australian exports.

Read the full story from Lisa Visentin here.

The Mar-a-Lago patio has become ground zero for an “all-out battle” to secure a position in Donald Trump’s administration, CNN reports.

Kaitlan Collins reported that the outdoor area at Trump’s Florida resort was teaming with would-be Trump officials on Wednesday night local time, as candidates vied for proximity to where the president-elect holds court at a table behind a velvet rope.

Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.Credit: AP

Donald Trump Jr, Robert F. Kennedy Jr and former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard were spotted working the patio, as well as Trump’s transition co-chairs Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon.

While many hopefuls have been putting in calls to Trump, several have also booked flights to Florida to try and ensure face time with him in the coming days, CNN reported.

It comes after Trump announced his appointment for his administration’s top job – campaign co-chair Susie Wiles will be his chief of staff.

Levi Strauss & Co. heir Daniel Lurie is set to become mayor of San Francisco after spending more than $7 million of his own money to position himself as a political outsider who could best tackle the city’s homelessness, drug and crime problems.

Incumbent London Breed conceded the election Thursday. Preliminary returns showed Lurie had won about 56 per cent of support under the city’s ranked-choice voting system, compared with Breed’s 44 per cent. The race had narrowed to the two after other major candidates were eliminated.

Daniel Lurie, heir to Levi Strauss & Co., will be the next mayor of San Francisco.Credit: AP

Thousands of ballots still need to be counted, and San Francisco officials have yet to call the race. The San Francisco Chronicle declared Lurie the winner on Thursday.

Lurie’s election underscores residents’ dissatisfaction with the status quo in San Francisco, a longtime tech boomtown that’s now struggling to recover economically from the pandemic. Lurie, one of three moderate Democrats who ran on the promise to clean up homelessness, open-air drug markets and combat retail theft and other crimes, set himself apart by framing his own narrative as a political outsider.

As one of the wealthiest people to ever run for mayor of the city, he thwarted attacks from opponents who labelled him as a “trust fund kid” for relying on his family’s money to self-finance his campaign.

Bloomberg

Peter Dutton won’t necessarily be able to capitalise on voters’ immigration concerns in the same way Donald Trump has due to Australia’s unique geography, says NDIS Minister Bill Shorten.

Shorten told ABC’s RN Breakfast this morning that Australia is one of the luckiest countries in the world because we occupy “a continent entirely to ourselves”.

“Whilst we want to make sure that crooks and bad people are sent out of the country, we don’t have the same land border challenges as the US,” he said.

“I’m not quite sure … it’s an important issue here, but the heat on those border states in America is just red hot.”

As the Australian government announces its intention to legislate a ban on social media for children younger than 16, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been asked if he is concerned about pushback from Elon Musk, who is slated to take a place in the new Trump administration.

As the owner of X, Musk has already been in a legal dispute with Australian authorities over the sites’ failure to remove videos of the Wakeley church terrorist attack earlier this year.

And Trump’s return to the White House will expand Musk’s influence even further. The billionaire was one of Trump’s key backers, pouring more than $100 million into the president-elect’s campaign and vocally supporting him online.

Musk is set to be handed a key role in the new administration, with Trump previously announcing he would oversee a new government efficiency commission.

In a press conference this morning, Albanese was asked if he was concerned about Musk’s growing influence following Trump’s win and whether he could exert that power to hinder the proposed laws.

The PM gave a one-sentence response: “We will always advocate Australia’s national interest.”

President Joe Biden has been very active on social media today, sharing seven different statements between the official POTUS account and his personal profile on X.

He’s just shared an inspirational message with his supporters, telling them that “a defeat doesn’t mean we are defeated”.

Also on his personal account, Biden earlier praised Kamala Harris for “an inspiring campaign” that showed she has a “backbone like a ramrod”.

The official @POTUS account has also been busy, with Biden using that account to call Harris an “extraordinary partner and public servant”.

In another post about accepting the election outcome, Biden wrote, “You can’t love your country only when you win”.

He also posted to thank supporters and staff who’ve been with him for the past four years, asking them “not to forget all that we’ve accomplished”:

Much of the work we’ve done is already being felt by the American people, but the vast majority of it will be felt over the next ten years. It’s truly historic. We are leaving behind the strongest economy in the world. Together, we have changed America for the better.”

Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin is urging the military to carry out a smooth transition to president-elect Donald Trump, reminding the forces of their obligation to follow the lawful orders of the next commander-in-chief.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.Credit: nna\riwood

While such memos are rare, it is not the first time the military’s top civilian leader has pressed the military on its duty to the Constitution when it comes to the changing of the guard under Trump.

However, in the context of the incoming president’s suggestion that he may use federal forces at the southern border, and Project 2025 plans to force out career civilians and fill positions with Trump loyalists, the Biden administration has taken unusual steps both to try to insulate those civil servants and to remind the military of its own sworn oaths.

AP

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten has backed Anthony Albanese to speak out against Trump if it’s in the national interest.

In an interview on ABC’s RN Breakfast earlier this morning, Shorten was asked about his criticism in 2016 of then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull for not rebuking Trump more strongly, particularly when he issued an executive order banning immigration from predominantly Muslim countries.

Outgoing disability minister Bill Shorten.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Asked if he would hold Albanese to the same standard, Shorten said he had “no doubt” that the prime minister would “speak in the national interest first and foremost”.

He also observed that Trump is not opposed to making amends with those who have criticised him in the past.

“Did you know that J.D. Vance … in 2016 said that the current president was an idiot and reprehensible, but now he’s the vice president to him,” Shorten said.

“I think we’re better to focus on the future, and I’ve seen the same with some of Mr Dutton’s Coalition frontbenchers who are less than flattering.”

The election cycle has proven a gold mine for the Murdoch family empire in many ways, with Fox News ratings through the roof and record political revenue in the first quarter, according to Lachlan Murdoch earlier this week.

But it’s the book publishing business, HarperCollins, that has continued to be a surprise beneficiary.

Vice president-elect J.D. Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy again delivered for News Corp, selling 1.5 million units across the three months from July to September in the lead-up to Tuesday’s vote, the company reported on Friday morning.

The memoir, alongside “robust Bible sales during a time of acute political uncertainty and intense global conflict” helped the HarperCollins business jump 25 per cent in profitability, global chief executive Robert Thomson told investors.

Thomson praised the company’s news output during the cycle, which included a Trump endorsement from The New York Post, while the Wall Street Journal continued its near-century-long tradition of not backing a party.

Closer to home, it wasn’t hard to tell which side Sky News was backing.

“The just completed election has highlighted the importance of trusted journalism in a media maelstrom in which some journalists routinely mistake virtue signalling for virtue,” Thomson said.