Donald Trump back, even stronger | US elections 2024

On paper, Republican candidate Donald Trump has not yet crossed the threshold allowing him to win the American presidential election, but barring a spectacular turnaround, voters have delivered their verdict by giving him a strong and unequivocal mandate.

We accomplished the most incredible thing politically, a political victory our country has never seen beforehe proclaimed shortly before 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, making his entrance with his family and several of his allies in front of supporters gathered in West Palm Beach, Florida.

We have proven our critics wrong. A golden age is coming for Americahe promised, returning to themes hammered out during the race, but largely avoiding the somber tone that marked his campaign.

He assured that he would respect his promises, those of making to America its security, its strength, its prosperity, its power and its freedom and to fight for American families and their future.

It’s time to put the divisions of the last four years behind ushe declared, affirming that the success that he would assure the country would be guarantor ofunit of the United States, like, he said, his first mandate, although marked by great polarization.

In a speech lasting less than 30 minutes, the former president praised billionaire Elon Musk, who worked for his re-election with millions, without ever mentioning his Democratic rival Kamala Harris.

Victim of an assassination attempt during a political rally this summer, Donald Trump alluded to it.

Many people tell me that God spared me for a reason and that reason was to save this country.

According to CNN, his campaign team was confident of winning, but expected the outcome of the race would not be known until the coming days. His collaborators would not have prepared a speech.

But all evening, the good news piled up for the candidate who had been defeated four years ago.

Unequivocal results

Donald Trump spoke a little more than thirty minutes after several media outlets added Pennsylvania, the key state which is the big prize of this election with its 19 electors, in the column of his gains. A decisive victory, coming after that in North Carolina and Georgia.

At 4 a.m. (ET), the media credited him with 266 electors, four less than the threshold necessary for his victory.

But with their 51 electors, the trio of key states he won should easily allow him to cross the magic number of 270 when the results in the states traditionally won by the Republicans are revealed, less than one unexpected upheaval.

At 4:10 a.m. ET, the other four key states – Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada – remained up in the air, but he led in all of them. If Donald Trump swings them all, he will have 312 electors, compared to 226 for his Democratic rival.

Nearly four years after the assault on the Capitol, the Americans therefore chose to send back to the White House a president who had not recognized his defeat, even delivering his most decisive victory.

He thus seems on the way to improving his results compared to 2016 and 2020, the year in which he bit the dust while collecting more votes than in his first campaign.

In each of the swing states, he has won or is on track to win more than 50% of the vote.

If the trend continues, it is in Nevada that he will record his most convincing victory. With partial results, he received 51.5% of the vote, 46.8% – a lead of almost 5 points.

Georgia is the state where the fight seems the closest: Donald Trump is ahead of his opponent there with 50.8% of the vote against 48.5%.

If the trend continues, he should also win the popular vote in addition to the Electoral College. This is only the second time since 2000 that a Republican has won more votes than his rival.

After counting 86.3% of the votes, he received 51.1% of the votes nationally, compared to 47.4% for Kamala Harris.

A criminal in the White House

The re-election of Donald Trump is not historic as the election of Kamala Harris would have been, which would have broken several glass ceilings: she would have been the first woman, the first black woman and the first person of Asian origin to access the presidency.

But it will, however, set a less glorious precedent: no person with a criminal record has ever become president. In May, he was convicted of 34 counts of document falsification committed to further his 2016 election.

His victory or a defeat of Donald Trump would not only be political, it would also have profound personal repercussions for him: the outcome of the vote will likely determine what happens to his legal troubles.

If elected, he will have the power to permanently dismiss the two federal criminal charges filed against him, one in Washington, where he is accused of trying to subvert the 2020 presidential election, and the second in Florida, where prosecutor Jack Smith appeals the mistrial.

While it is unusual for a defeated president to seek the highest office in the country again, he would not be the first to take electoral revenge. Only one president has so far served two terms non-consecutively, Democrat Grover Cleveland (1885-1889 and 1893-1897).

The 78-year-old politician will also be the oldest president in American history.

If control of the House of Representatives remains in suspense, Donald Trump will be able to count on a Republican majority in the Senate, an advantage which will allow him to have free rein for his appointments.

It is the upper house which ratifies the appointments of members of the presidential cabinet as well as those of judges. The president-elect, who appointed three judges during his first term, could thus be called upon to consolidate the conservative majority for decades.

Harris will address Americans today

The arrival of Kamala Harris in the race 110 days ago whipped up the Democrats’ enthusiasm and allowed them to raise record sums, but the change at the head of the Democratic ticket proved insufficient to prevent the re-election of ‘a politician they see as a threat to democracy.

At Howard University in Washington, where the Democratic camp was gathered, her campaign co-chair, Cedric Richmond, indicated shortly before 1 a.m. (ET) that the vice-president would not speak this evening, but would wait at the next day to address the Americans.

Kamala Harris’ campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, for her part, mentioned an extremely close race in a message sent in the evening to his teams.

The clearest path to win goes through Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, she maintained, before, however, the state media attributed the victory to the Republican in Pennsylvania.

We are happy with what we see thereshe assured, adding that the race will not clear until early morningWednesday.