The technical tie that the polls showed did not translate into a tight election day. The Republican candidate, Donald Trump, will return to the White House four years later after sweeping his rival, Kamala HarrisIn an election in which the Democratic Party has lost all the states in dispute and is far behind the Republican Party. With the first results that tied his victory, the tycoon appeared before the thousands of followers who were waiting for him in Florida, where he assured that “he will “clean up” the country and “stop the wars”, promises that he has been repeating for months and that have helped him to reedit his 2016 electoral triumph.
The Republican’s victory in the majority of swing states or swing states has been key to consolidate his return to the Oval Office. Pending the official announcement of the winner in the states of Arizona and Nevada, the confirmed victories in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin provide the Republican with more than 290 pledge votes, of the 270 needed to be proclaimed the new president.. It remains to be seen whether he will surpass the 304 obtained in 2016, something that current projections in the territories that have yet to close the result point to this being the case.
The night was a party from the get-go for Trump and his major donors and friends like Elon Musk or the owner of the UFC, Dana White, who celebrated with him the final result in Florida. With the main states in dispute already closed, the former president appeared to the rhythm of God Bless the USA, by Lee Greenwood, before thousands of Republican supporters who were already calling him president. An exuberant Trump claimed alongside his family and his vice presidential candidate, J.D. Vance, that the movement he had created “was historic.” “The greatest political movement this country has ever seen,” he declared before acknowledging that he was beginning a “golden age” in which he intends to “heal” and “fix” the country.. A time when he says he sees himself capable of “stop wars”.
On the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Trump has let slip that he will end the war by cutting off the tap to Kiev and seeking an agreement with Vladimir Putin, whom he has acknowledged admiring in the past. After the results were known, the administration of the Ukrainian president, Volodymir Zelenskiwarmly congratulated Trump and called for “a just peace.”a long-standing slogan of the Republican Party. For its part, Russia assured that it harbored no illusions and acknowledged that the political elites in the US, regardless of their political sign, are all “anti-Russian”.
As for the Israeli offensive on Gaza and tensions throughout the region, it is unclear in what way it will put pressure the new Trump Administration on the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahuone of the international leaders who have the best relationship with an ex-president who already in his first term demonstrated his desire to implement policies that would benefit the Hebrew State. Something that happened with the transfer of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv a Jerusalem or the publication of a peace agreement that the Palestinians criticized as unfair and biased.
“The United States has given us a powerful and unprecedented mandate,” Trump has said, stressing that his party has “taken back” the Senate and “appears” on track to maintain control of the House of Representatives. This would allow the mandate that will begin on January 20 to be much more pleasant than the one he had four years ago, since he would control the executive, the legislative and the judicial branches, after having the latter a conservative majority in the Supreme Court thanks to the appointments he himself made during the first legislature.
This fact will not be trivial, since Trump will take office in front of the Capitol, the place from which four years ago a mob of followers stormed after the tycoon accused Joe Biden of electoral fraud. An accusation that he has not been able to prove and that has generated several court cases. In addition, he will be the first U.S. president to occupy the presidency with judicial convictions that are pending ratification.
A silence that confirms the electoral debacle
With territories still to be awarded, the map of the results shows a tough Democratic defeat. Out of the seven swing states, Harris has only managed to improve Biden’s results in Wisconsin, Georgia and North Carolina, even though have not allowed her to change the electoral result and he has ended up losing them to Trump. All these territories have fallen into the hands of the Republican, including Nevada. A very different result from what the polls had been showing in recent weeks.
It was precisely at the moment when the U.S. media began to give Pennsylvania to Trump that the Democratic Party decided to communicate that Harris would not appear. “We still have votes to count. We still have states that have not yet been declared. We will continue to fight through the night to make sure every vote is counted,” said Cedric Richmond, Harris’ campaign co-manager. Shortly thereafter, those territories were colored red, definitively taking all chances away from the Democrat.
More than 12 hours after the Republican victory, Kamala Harris called out Trump to congratulate him on winning the election. and close this chapter. A conversation in which, according to a Harris aide, the importance of a peaceful transfer of power was discussed. The only consolation at this point for the Democrats is to win the House of Representatives, something complicated at this stage of the recount, although it could take at least a week to materialize.