TRUMP TOWERS

‘God spared my life for a reason’, says Trump as he stages a historic comeback as President of the US by sweeping key battleground states | Kamala Harris of Black and Indian heritage fails to enthuse voters as gender barrier is still insurmountable in the land of the free | World leaders congratulate the winner as the result is set to have a huge impact on global affairs at a time when two wars are raging

- Prashant Jha

Donald Trump rewrote history on Wednesday as he was elected America's next president in a sweeping win that gave him a comfortable majority in America's electoral college as well as a majority of the popular vote.

Trump, who will take office on January 20, 2025 and preside over the 250th anniversary celebrations of the founding of America in 2026, is only the second president to win non-successive terms. He is the first former president who is a convicted felon to win the presidency again. He is the only man who refused to accept the legitimacy of the last electoral outcome, and then survived an assassination attempt, to participate in and win the election again.

His opponent, vice president Kamala Harris, was expected to concede defeat later on Wednesday (Thursday morning IST).

An election that was billed as close didn't end up being that close after all, as Trump either won, or was likely to win, the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin - the Blue Wall that Democrats had pinned their hopes on- and Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina and Georgia. He also won the popular vote, the first time a Republican candidate has in over two decades. And he shrank the margins of Democratic victories in even traditionally Blue states.