Donald Trump has defeated Kamala Harris to be elected the 47th president of the United States and is set to return to the Oval Office four years after he was voted out.
Which party will control the House remained unclear early Wednesday morning. But with Republicans winning control of the Senate and unified GOP control of the federal government a possibility, the election results taken together pointed toward likely economic policies of tax cuts, deregulation, and tariff hikes.
U.S. stock futures were rising Wednesday morning, with major market indexes all up 1% or more. Bitcoin hit a new all-time high Tuesday night when it started to look like the election was heading Trump’s way.
The Associated Press called the race for Trump shortly after 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday after declaring him the winner of Wisconsin, the latest in a string of swing states to go his way Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning. Trump had been declared the winner of the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania. few hours earlier.
Trump will become only the second person in American history to serve as president across two non-consecutive terms, as both the 45th and 47th presidents, joining Grover Cleveland. His election means a return to many of the policies and politics of his first term before Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
On the campaign trail, Trump hammered the same issues that had helped fuel his political rise almost a decade earlier, making tackling illegal immigration a core part of his message. While delivering his closing argument in New York last week, he called Election Day “Liberation Day in America,” pointing to his plans to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
“On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history to get the criminals out,” Trump said. “I will rescue every city and town that has been invaded and conquered, and we will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail and kick them the hell out of our country as fast as possible.”
That’s just one of the dozens of “day one” promises he’s made to voters. They include repealing Biden’s executive orders related to background checks for gun purchases and artificial intelligence, eliminating taxes on tips, and expanding oil drilling. He’s also promised to be a dictator for just that day, telling Fox News that “after that, I’m not a dictator.”
A major goal of his first year will be getting Congress to renew his 2017 tax cuts and pass a number of the other tax cuts he’s touted, including an end to taxes on Social Security and lower corporate taxes. Massive tariffs are also on the horizon, with duties of as much as 20% planned on all foreign imports and 60% on Chinese products.
As at least one of Trump’s advisers has said that likely means hardship for at least the first few years of his presidency. According to most analyses published by economists, his proposals would hasten Social Security’s insolvency, increase unemployment, raise inflation, lower GDP, massively add to the federal debt, and boost tax rates for the vast majority of Americans.
While his presidency is expected to benefit oil and gas stocks, as well as cryptocurrency and bank stocks, his tariffs may shave off some of the benefits his administration brings. Private prison operators would also benefit from his deportation program.
“We will achieve success that no one can imagine. We will have the strongest economy, the most secure borders, the safest cities, the most powerful military, the best trade deals,” Trump said last week in New York City.
Had Harris won the election, she would have pushed for big investments in domestic manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and clean energy. She also ran on a series of populist policies targeted toward middle-class and low-income Americans, such as tax credits for families with newborns and a pledge to take on high prices for groceries, drugs, and homes.
Trump is arguably the most divisive figure in modern American history and is credited with worsening the partisan divide from the very start of his tenure in office. His trademark style of speeches — a series of rambling, disjointed messages featuring hurled insults and grand promises — has been entertaining to some but fascistic and authoritarian to others.
Leading up to Election Day, Trump repeatedly refused to give a straight answer on whether or not he would accept the results of the election. Even now, four years later, the former president has yet to officially acknowledge that he lost the 2020 election to Biden.
Following that election, he and his allies filed more than 60 lawsuits challenging the results. Almost all were thrown out, rejected, or withdrawn, including two that made it to the Supreme Court. And as early as Oct. 30, he began falsely claiming that voter fraud was active at “large scales rarely seen before.”
Trump had hoped that a victory would ensure his protection against the series of legal problems he continues to grapple with. That includes a case that charged Trump with lying and trying to mislead federal investigators looking to retain classified materials.
He faces a Nov. 26 sentencing date after being convicted of 34 felonies over reimbursements for a “hush money” payment made to an adult film star. Trump’s lawyers have argued for either the charges against him to be dropped or for a new trial that omits some evidence. If sentencing proceeds after that date, he could be sentenced to prison, which would likely be subject to an appeal.
With his political ambitions secured as president-elect, Trump hopes to turn that position into a safeguard against federal prosecution for alleged wrongdoing. Several ongoing cases against Trump had already been delayed as the election approached, delays that will almost surely continue with his transition into the White House.
And with him returning to the White House, Trump is promising voters that America will no longer be a “nation of decline” and enter a new “golden age.”
“Together, we will make America powerful again,” Trump repeated, with some variation, at the end of at least 20 rallies across the past two weeks. “We will make America wealthy again. We will make America healthy again. We will make America strong again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again, and we will make America great again.”
