Donald Trump was elected as the 47th President of the United States on Wednesday. With a victory in Wisconsin, Trump amassed 277 electoral votes, securing his election to the presidency. His victory has already been confirmed by major media outlets and research agencies, including Associated Press, CNN, Reuters, and Edison Research.
"America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate," Trump declared early Wednesday morning to a cheering crowd of supporters at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in Florida.
Trump’s political career once seemed to have ended after his claims of election fraud led to the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack by his supporters who sought to overturn his 2020 loss.
However, he decisively defeated his rivals within the Republican Party and then went on to overcome Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, leveraging voters' concerns about rising costs and crime linked to illegal immigration. By winning, Donald Trump became the second president in U.S. history to serve two non-consecutive terms, with Grover Cleveland being the first in the late 19th century.
Harris did not address supporters gathered at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington, D.C. Instead, her campaign co-chair, Cedric Richmond, spoke to the crowd after midnight, stating that Harris would address the public later on Wednesday.
"We still have votes to count," he said.
Republicans have secured a majority in the Senate, but neither party has a clear advantage yet in the race for control of the House of Representatives, which is currently under Republican control.
The victorious party's platform outlines the Republicans' commitment to a "peace through strength" approach: "rebuilding our military and alliances, countering China, and defeating terrorism," among other goals. Notably, Ukraine and Russia are absent from this platform.
However, another section states that "Republicans will strengthen alliances, ensuring that our allies meet their commitments to invest in our joint defense and restore peace in Europe." Trump and many other Republican politicians have repeatedly emphasized that the U.S. bears the primary burden of aid to Ukraine (with data from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks aid levels, showing that assistance from the EU and other countries is comparable to that of the U.S.). They argue that European NATO allies should assume a larger share of responsibility and costs.
On Donald Trump’s campaign website, the foreign policy section is titled “Reject Globalism and Embrace Patriotism.” Ukraine is not mentioned there. Instead, it states that "The humiliating defeat of the Harris-Biden administration in Afghanistan emboldened hostile regimes, terrorist groups, and rivals like China, Russia, and North Korea. Under President Trump’s leadership, we will restore our standing in the world and American leadership abroad."