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
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