Former President Donald Trump on the cusp of a second term after victories in swing states

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump was poised early Wednesday to once again assume the Oval Office after American voters delivered wins in the swing states of North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania, according to projections from The Associated Press.

Trump led with 267 Electoral College votes overall nationally, eclipsing Democratic nominee Vice President Harris’ 224, just before 3 a.m. Eastern, according to the AP. A total of 270 votes are needed to win.

The Associated Press had not yet projected results for the other battleground states of Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin. Trump, however, held leads in all four. Alaska’s three electoral votes are reliably Republican and were expected in the morning hours.

Decision Desk HQ and Fox News also called Wisconsin for Trump, which would give him an Electoral College victory. The AP and other media that project election winners, including NBC News, CNN and The New York Times, had not called the race by 3 a.m. Eastern.

All results are unofficial until local election officials across the country verify and certify the outcome in the coming days and weeks.

Trump declared victory at his election night party just before 3 a.m. Wednesday. 

Though votes in key swing states were still being counted, the speech signaled the end of an extraordinary presidential contest defined by Trump’s divisive rhetoric, his numerous criminal cases and two attemptson his life. The race took an unprecedented turn when President Joe Biden, following a disastrous debate performance, dropped his reelection bid with just over 100 days until the election, jolting the Trump camp to pivot to Harris.

Trump promises to ‘heal’

Trump amassed electoral votes shortly after polls closed in states forecast in his favor, and picked up critical wins in key battlegrounds when the AP projected victories for him in North Carolina just before midnight, Georgia at about 1 a.m., and Pennsylvania just before 2:30 a.m. Trump won the key states in his successful 2016 campaign but lost them in his failed reelection bid in 2020.

Speaking to his supporters in West Palm Beach, Florida, Trump thanked “thousands of friends in this incredible movement like nobody’s ever seen before.”

“Frankly, this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time. There’s never been anything like this in this country,” Trump said.

Trump promised to “heal” the country and that his second presidency “will truly be the golden age of America.”

“We overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible,” Trump said.

During his roughly 25-minute speech, Trump thanked his family and campaign staff, and invited his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, and Dana White, CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship, to speak on stage.

Vance, poised to become Trump’s vice president, said a new administration would usher in an economic “comeback” for the U.S.

“I think we just witnessed the greatest political comeback in the history of the United States of America,” Vance said.

White thanked popular podcast host Joe Rogan for his election eve endorsement of Trump.

“This is what happens when the machine comes after you,” White said. “This is karma, ladies and gentlemen.”

Harris to speak Wednesday

As election night turned into early Wednesday, the previously energetic crowd at Howard started to dwindle. Once campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond announced Harris would not be speaking at the party, the last stragglers left in waves, the mood quickly souring.

Richmond said that Harris would address supporters and the nation later Wednesday, and tried to give a small pep talk.

“We still have votes to count,” he said. “We still have states that have not been called yet.”

In reference to reports that Harris’ watch party had begun to wind down, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt commented on X “sounds like joy has left the building…” The word “joy” was a rallying cry among the Harris camp and supporters during her whirlwind campaign.

Billionaire Elon Musk, a major funder and surrogate for the Trump campaign, posted on his platform X a photo of a launching rocket ship along with the words, “The future is gonna be fantastic.” Shortly before that he posted a photoshopped image of himself hauling a sink into the Oval Office with the message, “Let that sink in.”

‘I don’t feel as hopeful’

Harris had planned to spend election night at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington, D.C., where her supporters gathered, but she never left from the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory, according to press pool reports.

Early in the evening, Lalika Gerald, a Howard graduate from 2005, remembers studying TV production in the library that is now overlooking an election night rally for potentially the first Black woman to lead the country.

“It’s a very exciting time just to be here and to know that a Bison like myself is about to be our president,” she said, referring to the university’s mascot.

The 41-year-old from Prince George’s County, Maryland, said she has felt a roller coaster of emotions throughout the day.

“As excited and as hopeful as I am, you know you never know what might happen,” she said. “It’s a moment for us to be really seen.”

By the time the event ended around 1 a.m., Harris supporters’ said the hope they felt at the start of the evening had left.

“I don’t know what’s happening, but it’s very stressful right now,” Liane Crosey said as she left the watch party. “Seeing the numbers coming in, I don’t feel as hopeful.”

A convicted felon in the Oval Office

Trump is positioned to make history as the first-ever convicted felon elected to the presidency. His long presidential campaign tangled with a busy legal calendar that included two federal cases, still ongoing, and cases in Georgia and New York. The former president was convicted in New York in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush money paid to a porn star ahead of the 2016 election. His sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 26.

Trump ascended on the campaign trail despite facing federal felony charges for scheming to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Four years ago, Trump refused to concede to Biden in 2020 and lost dozens of court cases challenging the results.

His repetition of the lie that the 2020 was “stolen” from him became a main feature of his campaign rallies in 2024.

The major policy area he focused on during the campaign was curtailing immigration, and he promised to conduct mass deportations of immigrants in the country illegally. Trump and Vance also targeted legal immigrants, including by amplifying the debunked rumor that Haitians with Temporary Protected Status in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pets.

Trump also pledged to ramp up tariffs, taxes on goods produced overseas, in an effort to boost U.S. manufacturing.

Trump and campaign officials tried to distance the candidate from a comprehensive conservative policy blueprint written by the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank. The plan calls for restructuring the federal government to empower the president, further restricting abortion access and limiting immigration, among other proposals.

Trump would likely enjoy friendly lawmakers in Washington over the next two years, as Republicans were projected to win control of the U.S. Senate. Control of the House remained unknown early Wednesday,

Despite several U.S. House races remaining too close to call, Republican Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana issued a written statement declaring “There is hope and morning in America again!”

“Donald Trump is now our President-elect, chosen by the American people for such a time as this. The citizens of our great country used their voices to decisively reject four more years of Harris’ open borders, high crime, increased cost of living, weaponized government, dangerous radical woke ideology, and weakness on the world stage – demanding instead, a return to common sense, peace, and prosperity,” Johnson said.

Trump is not officially president-elect until election results are certified.

In the states

States Newsroom journalists fanned out across the country Tuesday, talking to voters outside churches, community centers, schools and courthouses, where the presidential race not only weighed on their minds, but congressional contests and ballot initiatives as well.

Voter Stephanie Capps in Raleigh, North Carolina, said she brought her 9-year-old daughter to the polls to show her democracy in action.

“Because a little over 100 years ago, women couldn’t vote,” Capps told NC Newsline. “And so, we talked about how it’s really important for her to learn to vote.”

The presidential campaigns continued to hit swing states, speak to the press and issue statements reminding voters of their rights.

Harris stayed in Washington, D.C, where she called in to several radio shows in battleground states. According to her campaign, she was a guest on Power 99 in Philadelphia with Cappuchino and KDKA NewsRadio in Pittsburgh with Larry Richert, the Big Tigger Morning Show in Atlanta, Georgia and Foxy 107.2 with Karen Clark in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“I’m proud to have a lot of support out of Pittsburgh, it’s a historic city,” Harris told Richert, who asked about her 10 campaign visits to the western Pennsylvania city.

Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, stopped in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Tuesday where he spoke to supporters and volunteers.

Walz told reporters after the event “I think the choice couldn’t be starker.”

Trump posted video messages on his platform Truth Social throughout Tuesday reminding voters to remain in line if they arrive before polls close.

“Republicans, we’re doing very well. Stay on line, don’t get off line, and vote. Make sure you get through and vote. We’re gonna have a big victory tonight,” Trump said.

Biden, who was the presumed Democratic nominee until he dropped his reelection bid and endorsed Harris just over 100 days ago, did not make any public appearances Tuesday.