Trump triumphs over odds to win White House in historic comeback

Donald John Trump made a phenomenal comeback on Wednesday, beating back a conviction, three indictments, two assassination attempts, two impeachments, and continuous assault by most of the mainstream media to reclaim the White House.

“We made history,” declared Trump, who will become the 47th president of the United States.

He won 277 electoral college seats – a clear majority in the 538-member body – and 51 per cent of the popular votes counted as of 5:30 am (4 pm in India), setting him on a clear path to the presidency that he lost in 2020.

“This is a magnificent victory for the American people that will allow us to make America great again,” he said at his victory celebration in Florida as his supporters shouted, “USA, USA.”

At 78, he will be the oldest president to set foot in the White House.

He is also the second president to be elected after being defeated; the last one was Grover Cleveland, who won his second term in 1893.

Trump’s victory was powered by economic issues, with popular disquiet over inflation that has sent food prices soaring by about 25 per cent compared to when he was defeated in 2020.

The Republicans recaptured the Senate, assured of at least 51 seats in the 100-member body.

Control of the House of Representatives hung in the balance, even though Republicans had the edge with 200 seats to Democrats’ 175.

Although it will take days or weeks for states to announce the official results as they complete formalities and counting, by tradition the media declared him the winner based on the analysis of the counting data pouring in.

The election was a shocking disappointment for Kamala Harris, who stepped in to carry the Democratic Party torch three months ago after President Joe Biden dropped out due to questions over his mental and physical capabilities.

Since the August Democratic National Convention, which nominated her unopposed, Harris scrambled to forge a distinct identity but was drowned by the weaknesses of the Biden administration, which projected her as a partner.

When Harris leaves office in January, there will still be a person of Indian origin in 1 Observatory Circle, the US Vice President’s official residence – Usha Vance, the wife of JD Vance, Trump’s running mate.

The declaration of Trump’s victory came swiftly, confounding pollsters and analysts who predicted a tight race that would have taken a lot longer – days or weeks – to resolve.

The result was a repudiation of the Democrats’ identity politics, which stereotypes people and puts them into monolithic groups.

Erosion of support among Latinos contributed to Harris’s defeat, as they appeared to not buy into her arguments that Trump’s opposition to illegal migration translated to racism against Latino citizens.

Another group that exit polls showed contributed to the Democrat’s defeat was young voters, especially men.

Trump also made headway among African Americans.

Harris made abortion rights a central point of her campaign, hoping to win women’s support. But it appears that many women still voted for Trump, even in some of the states where abortion rights referendums carried.

It was also a rejection of celebrities like Taylor Swift or Beyoncé, and the mainstream media, who went all in for Harris and ceaselessly attacked Trump.

The liberal elite, who seem to set the Democrats’ agenda, had advocated policies like defunding the police, open borders, and allowing men who are transgender to use girls’ bathrooms and participate in women’s sports.

Harris, who had once subscribed to these ideas, tried to distance herself from her past political persona.

Trump will view the victory as a vindication of his claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” and that he had defeated Biden.

His election will mean the end of two federal cases over alleged mishandling of secret documents and election obstruction.

In New York, he was convicted of manipulating business records to hide hush money payments to a porn star who claimed to have had a tryst with him.

He is due to be sentenced later this month and is unlikely to receive a prison term.

The case against him over the alleged 2020 election interference in Georgia is snagged by alleged misconduct by the prosecutor.