Donald Trump wins US presidency for second time, defeating Kamala Harris
OAKLAND, Calif. - In arguably the most consequential election of our time, Republican Donald Trump has again been elected as President of the United States, according to FOX News projections and Associated Press projections.
FOX News called the race for Trump late Tuesday evening, while AP called the race in the early overnight hours Wednesday.
After Trump won key battleground states like Pennsylvania and Georgia, the Republican reached 292 electoral votes, enough to secure the presidential win.
The businessman and real estate tycoon, who served as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021, lost his bid for the White House to Joe Biden in 2020.
With this win, Trump is now only the second former president in U.S. history who has been reelected for a nonconsecutive term. He joins Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th president, in this distinction. Cleveland reclaimed the White House in 1892, after losing his first reelection bid to Republican challenger Benjamin Harris, whom he later beat in their rematch.
Trump defeated his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, after reviving his "Make America Great" slogan to run a campaign that attacked the Democrats’ handling of the economy and criticized the Biden-Harris Administration's policies on border security.
In the final stretch of the election, he beefed up his anti-immigration rhetoric, and his win came despite intensifying questions over his mental acuity and drawing widespread criticism for remarks suggesting the military be used to handle his ideological opponents, whom he called "the enemy within."
Inauguration Day is on Jan. 20, 2025, when Trump will take the presidential oath for the second time to be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States.
After marking his 78th birthday back in June, he is set to make history as the oldest U.S. president sworn into office, beating out Joe Biden who was 78 years and 61 days old when he took office in 2020.
In 2019, Trump was impeached, becoming the third president in U.S. history to be impeached by the House. In 2021, he became the only U.S. president to be impeached twice, after being charged with "incitement of insurrection" related to Jan. 6.
Since leaving the White House in 2021, Trump has been the subject of several criminal cases, including state and federal matters in New York and Georgia.
In the federal case related to Jan. 6, 2021, Trump is facing four counts connected to efforts to overturn the 2020 election. In Georgia, the former president is facing 10 counts related to attempting to contest the 2020 election results.
In New York, Trump was found guilty on 34 counts, earlier this year, on charges of falsifying business records in his Manhattan hush-money case.
Trump’s legal proceedings have continued in the lead-up to the November election.