The election was predicted to be exceptionally even. In the end, it was Trump who drew the longest straw in several of the decisive swing states.
Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin were painted in a different party color compared to the election four years ago, in republican red.
Trump went out a bit early and proclaimed victory in front of jubilant supporters at his election party in Palm Beach, Florida – a historic and "amazing" victory.
We have a country that needs help, says Trump, and promises to put things right.
The 78-year-old also appears to have won the popular vote in the country as a whole, which he did not do when he won the election in 2016.
"Wants him to unite"
Trump's intended vice president JD Vance was also on stage and said he had witnessed the greatest political comeback ever.
Outside the exhibition hall where the party was held, more celebrating supporters gathered. Patrick Mac from New York was there early with an American flag in hand.
It feels good! I just want it to be over now, so he can save the country, he said to TT's reporter before Trump was about to appear.
TT: What do you want to hear from him?
I want him to unite America, including the Democrats. But they must also treat him fairly.
Kamala Harris has not yet been seen. The vice president's camp announced in an early stage of the night that she does not intend to comment on the result until later on Wednesday (American time).
Chaotic farewell
Donald Trump has secured at least 277 of the total 538 so-called electoral votes – while Kamala Harris is estimated to have 224. The vote count has not yet been completed in four states.
In the 2020 election, Joe Biden won in Georgia with a margin of just over 12,000 votes – which later drew attention to how Donald Trump in a conversation with the state's election official had asked him to "find" enough votes to change the result.
A fight against the correct election result culminated on January 6, 2021. Then, the outgoing Trump urged a crowd to march on Congress and "fight like hell" in connection with the formal confirmation of the result, which was followed by a violent storming of the parliament building.
Trump becomes the oldest person to be elected president in the USA, at the age of 78. Outgoing President Biden was 77 when he was elected. Trump also becomes the first president to have been convicted of federal crimes, after being convicted of accounting fraud earlier this year.
"Want to be optimistic, but..."
The Democrats also held a local election party in Trump's hometown of Palm Beach. The longer the election night wore on, the thinner the crowd became.
It doesn't feel good. We haven't managed to get enough people to realize that Trump is a fascist. He deceives people, said Drew Martin, who works on environmental issues and is locally active in Palm Beach, to TT at the party earlier in the night.
As the first polling stations were about to close, Trump claimed via social media that there was "a lot of talk about massive fraud in Philadelphia", without presenting any evidence for it. Philadelphia's District Attorney Larry Krasner quickly dismissed this.
Beside the presidential election, it is clear that there will be a shift in power in the Senate, where the Republicans will gain a majority.
Corrected: An earlier version of the article contained an incorrect statement about how old Joe Biden was when he was elected. An incorrect year for the storming of the US Congress has also been corrected.
Donald Trump wins in:
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Wyoming.
Kamala Harris wins in:
Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, the capital district of Washington DC, the state of Washington.
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News agency AP declares the winner in each state in a situation where a candidate is deemed to have an unbeatable lead.
Source: AP
The US presidential election is decided by electors, the representatives that voters in the 50 states elect when they go to the polls on election day.
In total, there are 538 electors, with at least 270 required to become president.
The candidate who receives the most votes in a state gets all the electoral votes there (except in Maine and Nebraska, where the electors are distributed proportionally according to the result). This means that the winner does not necessarily get the most votes overall in the country.
For example, in 2016, Hillary Clinton received almost 2.9 million more votes than Donald Trump, but Trump still won the election.
Each state has as many electors as it has representatives in Congress, a number determined by the state's population. In presidential elections, the capital district of DC has also been allocated three electors. The largest state is California with 54 electors, followed by Texas with 40 and New York with 28.
