Trump Wins the Presidency

Former President Donald Trump will be headed back to the White House. He has won this year’s presidential election, according to multiple news organizations. Trump, a Republican, defeated Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate.

This will be Trump’s second term in office. He was president from 2017 to 2021, but he lost to Joe Biden in the last presidential election. Trump is the first president to win two nonconsecutive terms in the White House since Grover Cleveland won reelection in 1892.

“I think we just witnessed the greatest political comeback in the history of the United States of America,” J.D. Vance said in a speech early Wednesday morning. The U.S. senator from Ohio will serve as Trump’s vice president.

For weeks leading up to the election, most public-opinion polls showed that Trump and Harris were locked in a tight race.

Though Tuesday was officially Election Day, more than 80 million Americans had already voted by then. Nearly every state and Washington, D.C., offered early voting. They allowed voters to cast their ballots in person on specific dates before yesterday. An estimated 38 million Americans had filled out and sent in their ballots by mail. 

By Wednesday morning, more than 137 million popular votes had been counted nationwide. Trump received more than half of them.

But in the U.S., voters don’t directly elect the president. Instead, we use a system called the Electoral College. The candidate who receives the most popular votes in a state wins that state’s electoral votes. There are 538 electoral votes in all. The candidate who wins at least 270 of them is elected president. (Click here to learn more about the Electoral College.) 

The race came down to the results in what are known as swing states, including Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Wisconsin. A swing state is a state in which the race is so close that it could “swing” to either candidate. Wins in those states pushed Trump past the magic number of 270. 

Trump isn’t technically the president yet. The election results won’t be official until after the members of the Electoral College cast their ballots on December 17. Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president of the U.S. on January 20, 2025. Until then, his title will be president-elect.

“I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected your 47th president and your 45th president,” Trump said in a speech early Wednesday morning. “And every citizen: I will fight for you, for your family and your future.”