Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts.
With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency.
As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results.
Photo: AFP
He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent).
“We’ve been through so much together and today [Tuesday] you showed up in record numbers to deliver a victory,” Trump told cheering supporters in Florida. “This was something special and we’re going to pay you back.”
As president, he has vowed to pursue an agenda centered on dramatically reshaping the federal government and securing the border.
Photo: AFP
The results cap a historically tumultuous and competitive election season that included two assassination attempts targeting Trump and a shift to a new Democratic nominee just a month before the party’s national convention.
His win against Harris, who took over the ticket from US President Joe Biden, came as her campaign struggled during a compressed timeline to convince voters that she represented a break from an unpopular administration.
Harris had not publicly spoken since the race was called.
Her campaign cochair, Cedric Richmond, said she was to speak later yesterday.
Trump is the first former US president to return to power since Grover Cleveland regained the White House in 1892.
He is the first person convicted of a felony to be elected president.
A New York jury in May found him guilty of 34 felony charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election. He faces sentencing later this month.
He has also been found liable in two other New York civil cases and is subject to additional criminal charges in an election-interference case in Georgia.
On the federal level, he has been indicted for his role in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election and improperly handling classified material.
His running mate, 40-year-old US Senator J.D. Vance, is to become the highest-ranking member of the millennial generation in the US government.
President William Lai (賴清德) congratulated Trump on social media last night.
“Sincere congratulations to President-elect @realDonaldTrump on your victory. I’m confident that the longstanding #Taiwan-#US partnership, built on shared values & interests, will continue to serve as a cornerstone for regional stability & lead to greater prosperity for us all,” he wrote on X.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also congratulated Trump and Vance.
Additional reporting by staff writer
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
RSS