Donald Trump wins US election

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Donald Trump surged to victory in the U.S. presidential election, mounting a spectacular comeback that will have profound consequences for the world.

The populist Republican clinched critical battleground states, including Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia. Republicans also regained control of the Senate, giving the party significant power over lawmaking and presidential appointments.

While the final votes are still being counted, the picture is already clear following Tuesday’s election: Vice President Kamala Harris and her Democratic Party have been resoundingly defeated across the United States. The margins of victory were larger than many polls predicted.

Trump spent election night at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, watching the results come in as guests sipped champagne. Among those seen at the club were Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and vocal Trump backer, and Nigel Farage, the British MP and Reform UK party leader.

“This is a magnificent victory for the American people, that will allow us to make America great again,” Trump said to an ecstatic response from his supporters. He promised his second term would be a “golden age” for America.

For the rest of the world, the implications of Trump’s comeback will be vast. After four years falsely claiming he was robbed of victory in 2020, he has vowed “retribution” against his opponents. His second term may be even more disruptive to the global order than his first.

European governments have been frantically preparing for what a new Trump administration would mean, in particular for America’s support for Ukraine in its effort to repel invading Russian forces.

Trump has boasted of ending the war within a day, a prospect that makes Ukraine and its allies fear they will be forced to cede territory to Moscow. He’s also talked tough on NATO, threatening to curtail American support for the military alliance that has underpinned European security since the Cold War.

World trade is another prime target for the unpredictable Republican’s disruptive instincts. He proposed hitting China with 60 percent tariffs, and slapping a tariff on all other imports of at least 10-20 percent. European countries such as Germany, which sells cars to the U.S., are particularly vulnerable to policy options that include a 100 percent tariff on all imported vehicles.

Politically, Trumpian politics is a million miles away from the conventional European mainstream. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz never hid his preference for the Democrats. For his part, Trump recently called the EU a “mini China.” It wasn’t a compliment.

But world leaders, including Britain’s Keir Starmer and France’s Emmanuel Macron, raced to congratulate Trump before his victory had been confirmed.

In America, the election marks a historic fork in the road. Over the next four years, Western democratic leadership will take a radically different direction.

Before the counting began Tuesday evening, pollsters and commentators had been predicting the closest contest perhaps ever recorded. Yet with most states called already, Harris underperformed while Trump made more gains than the polls predicted in key battleground states that mattered. This is the third election in a row that pollsters underestimated support for Trump.

Most analysts believed there were only ever seven truly competitive battlegrounds this year. These were three so-called Rust Belt states in the former industrial heartlands — Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania; and the Sun Belt states of Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada and Arizona in the southern and western parts of the country.

Voters across the country say their top priority this time was “democracy,” according to exit polling reported by NBC News, followed by the economy, abortion and migration. Trump is making inroads winning support from black and Latino men, in two crucial swing states — North Carolina and Georgia, surveys suggested.

The weeks and days leading up to the election have been tense. The campaign split the country with many voters feeling they have a terrible choice to make between the outlandish and unpredictable Trump and Harris, who struggled to define herself or set out what she would do differently to President Joe Biden if she wins.

The two sides have traded insults as much as they have debated policy. Harris branded Trump a fascist, while he called her a “sleazebag.”

In a troubled political atmosphere, violence hung in the air. Trump was targeted twice by would-be assassins, once escaping by the narrowest of margins as a bullet cut his ear. He also indulged in his own violent rhetoric, suggesting in the past week that Harris should fight Mike Tyson and one of her supporters should be shot at.

Before the results came out, Trump stoked his narrative that the contest had been unfair or corrupted, without providing evidence that has satisfied election authorities. A judge in Georgia threw out Republican complaints over the process Tuesday.

Others tried to cause trouble, too. Bomb threats believed to originate from Russians targeted Georgia and potentially Michigan, both swing states.

There are 538 Electoral College votes in total, spread over 50 states and the District of Columbia. A simple majority — 270 votes — in the Electoral College is enough for victory.

This story is being updated. Steven Shepard and Meredith McGraw contributed reporting.