TRUMP TRIUMPHS AGAIN --- Republican former president is first in more than a century to reclaim the White House after losing it

"Republican Donald Trump leveraged anxieties about the cost of living and illegal immigration to score a decisive victory over Democrat Kamala Harris, reclaiming the White House in an electoral triumph certain to alter the U.S.'s priorities and relationship with the world.

Trump, who won election in 2016 as the 45th president, now is set to be the 47th and just the second candidate in U.S. history to win nonconsecutive White House terms. His historic win blew away expectations for a prolonged vote count decided by razor-thin margins, as polls indicated for weeks.

Harris spoke to the president-elect on Wednesday to congratulate him. Trump spoke to President Biden, who "expressed his commitment to ensuring a smooth transition and emphasized the importance of working to bring the country together," the White House said. Biden invited him to the White House "in the near future."

Trump was on pace to sweep the battleground states, take the lead in the popular vote and outperform his previous support among young people and some minority groups such as Latino men. With Trump at the top of the Republican ticket, the party won a Senate majority and looked in position to narrowly keep power in the House.

On the campaign trail, Trump asked voters to consider if they were better off under his first presidency as Harris, the vice president, struggled to distance herself from an unpopular Biden during a combative and expensive campaign that exposed the nation's deep partisan divisions. In his third consecutive White House bid, Trump often pushed dark rhetoric and repeatedly threatened retribution for his political enemies as he sought to project strength to an electorate hungry for change.

The victory cements Trump as a historic political figure who prevailed despite a brashness and unfounded claims of election fraud that alienated many, proving his 2016 victory over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton wasn't a fluke. "This is a magnificent victory for the American people," Trump said in a celebration in West Palm Beach, Fla., early Wednesday.

He thanked voters for sending him back to the White House and said he would fight for every citizen, repeating his campaign pledge to strengthen the economy and address other priorities. "This truly will be the golden age of America," he said.

Harris, in remarks at Howard University on Wednesday, said she offered Trump and his team her help with the transition and the peaceful transfer of power. But she said they owed their "loyalty not to a president or a party, but to the Constitution of the United States."

"While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign," she said.

Trump, 78 years old, who rose to fame as a New York real-estate mogul and reality-television star, is the oldest person ever elected president -- a few months older than Biden was when he won in 2020. Grover Cleveland, a New York Democrat, is the only other former president to win the White House after an earlier re-election defeat, claiming the second victory in 1892.

The outcome of the race caps a campaign season of unprecedented upheaval, with Trump surviving two assassination attempts. He campaigned even as he worked through many legal problems, including being indicted on federal election-interference charges and being found guilty in a state court on 34 felony counts for falsifying records to cover up hush money to a porn star.

His victory throws the election-interference charges and another federal case into doubt as Trump could follow through on a threat to fire special counsel Jack Smith and have the prosecutions dropped.

The win is likely to throw a wrench into Trump's sentencing later this month in Manhattan, and is expected to hamper a Georgia prosecutor's efforts to pursue racketeering charges alleging that Trump engaged in a criminal conspiracy to overturn the state's 2020 election results.

The former president secured his win by tapping into strong support in rural America, as he did in his first win. As of Wednesday, he was projected to be the winner in the battlegrounds of North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin; he held advantages in Nevada and Arizona. Trump had 292 electoral votes. Trump also won strong support among working-class voters.

Harris struggled to pull together the diverse coalition that elected Biden in 2020, and she was weighed down by negative views of the economy under the Biden administration.

Harris made it a more competitive race when she assumed the Democratic nomination after Biden's decision to drop out following a faltering performance in a debate with Trump. The former president had held a commanding lead in polls over Biden, but Harris, looking to become the first woman to hold the nation's highest office, quickly narrowed the gap.

Trump benefited from a sour voter mood, despite low unemployment. In the final Wall Street Journal poll before the election, almost two-thirds of voters said the nation was headed in the wrong direction. While the rate of inflation has been coming down, its pain provided a long hangover that boosted Trump and hurt Harris.

Over the course of his nearly decade on the national political stage, Trump reshaped the GOP's tone, making it more populist and less tied to the traditional conservative ideals of fiscal discipline and national-security hawkishness. Those changes, with resonance from local party officials to Congress, are certain to influence Washington's priorities over the next four years.

Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, 40, the next vice president, showed a talent for articulating the tenets of Trumpism, often with more discipline than the movement's leader and is likely to be a top future contender for the GOP presidential nomination. A constitutional limit means Trump will need to vacate the White House in four years.

Trump's arguably strongest appeal echoed Ronald Reagan. "I'd like to begin by asking a very simple question," he started an Oct. 27 speech at Madison Square Garden in New York City. "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?"

On the stump, Trump used harsh, often derogatory language that some Republicans feared would make it more challenging for him to win over those outside his base. His campaign faced backlash even from Republicans for the Madison Square Garden event, during which some speakers made racist, sexist or otherwise derogatory comments about Harris, Democrats, Puerto Ricans and immigrants. Such rallies provided much fodder for his critics, but they were his biggest venue to connect with his adoring fans -- many of whom said his unconventional political tone and style were what they liked most about him.

Democrats had the spending advantage in the race, as they did when Trump won in 2016. He benefited from a major late investment in time and money by Elon Musk. The Tesla chief executive, who campaigned with Trump, donated at least $118 million and is expected to get a role helping the new administration cut government costs.

Both candidates closed their campaigns on messages infused with fear. Harris called Trump a "fascist," highlighted former aides who said he shouldn't again be allowed in the Oval Office and argued he had hurt women's reproductive health because of the Supreme Court appointments of his first term. Trump suggested Harris was responsible for inflation and undocumented migrants who committed crimes in the U.S.

When sworn in on Jan. 20, Trump will inherit a divided country still recovering from the aftershocks of a pandemic, pained by years of inflation and locked in tribal politics.

As he did during his 2016 bid, Trump painted a bleak picture of the nation's trajectory, casting himself as the only one able to fix it. He said he could solve many of the nation's problems in short order -- sometimes with a phone call. In his first administration, that often didn't prove to be the case.

Trump has said he would push through stiff tariffs to get better trade deals and influence the foreign policy of other nations. During his previous term, his aggressive approach toward China was underscored by tariffs that plunged the two nations into a trade war." [1]

1. TRUMP TRIUMPHS AGAIN --- Republican former president is first in more than a century to reclaim the White House after losing it. McCormick, John; Leary, Alex; Thomas, Ken. 
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 07 Nov 2024: A.1.