Former President Donald Trump took the stage and declared victory in the early hours of Wednesday morning, cementing an extraordinary political comeback.
Minutes earlier news organizations called the 2024 presidential race for him in an astonishing night for Republicans and devastating evening for Kamala Harris.
‘We made history for a reason tonight, and the reason is that we overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible,’ he said. ‘And it is now clear that we’ve achieved the most incredible political thing.’
The moment of truth came when Fox News called Pennsylvania, the biggest of the battleground prizes, followed by Wisconsin and then the entire race in his favor.
The Associated Press had still not called the election for Trump by 3am, but he claimed victory onstage nonetheless alongside wife Melania, 18-year-old son Barron and his most loyal staff and supporters.
‘It’s real,’ screamed one young supporter who raced to the front of the crowd as if it were a mosh pit, high fiving friends and strangers.
Trump was joined on stage by family – including daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner who had been absent from the campaign – aides and political supporters.
He thanked his supporters and promised a golden age for the nation.
When he invited is running mate to the microphone, Sen. J.D. Vance said the result marked a remarkable turnaround in political fortunes.
‘I thank you for the trust that you placed in me,’ he said, ‘and I think that we just witnessed the greatest political comeback in the history of the United States of America.’
Four years ago, Trump was a defeated man. Within months he had left Washington D.C. under a cloud after his supporters ransacked the U.S. Capitol.
Allies deserted him and he headed for exile at Mar-a-Lago.
On Tuesday night, he was surrounded by supporters, friends and family at his Florida home as he regained his crown.
He led them out on stage at the Palm Beach County Convention Center where he delivered his victory speech in front of hundreds more supporters who had waited hours to see him.
‘Most of all, I want to thank the millions of hard working Americans across the nation who have always been the heart and soul of this really great movement,’ he said.
‘We’ve been through so much together, and today, you showed up in record numbers to deliver a victory like really … probably … like no other. This was something special.’
The first big call was broadcast in the hall at 11:25pm, when North Carolina went to Trump.
The crowd’s energy went quickly from nervously excited to joy mingled with relief.
And for supporters called ‘garbage’ and ‘deplorables,’ who had stuck with the candidate through election defeat, court cases, impeachments and the fall-out from the Jan. 6 riot, it carried a dose of political redemption.
Trump used his speech to promise a positive vision.
‘Together we’re going to unlock America’s glorious destiny and we’re going to achieve the most incredible future for our people.’
‘It’s time to put the divisions of the past four years behind us, it is time to unite. And we’re going to try, we have to try, and we’re going to be successful at bringing us together… Success is going to bring us together, and we are going to start by putting America first.’
Hours before polls closed, Trump claimed on his Truth Social site without evidence that there was ‘a lot of talk about massive CHEATING’ in Philadelphia, a Democratic stronghold.
It echoed his 2020 claims of election fraud in Democratic-controlled cities.
And it led to worries that he and his team could be preparing for a repeat of the legal and political challenges that ended with hundreds of his supporters storming the U.S. Capitol.
‘If I lose an election, if it’s a fair election, I’m gonna be the first one to acknowledge it,’ Trump told reporters after voting on Tuesday.
Allies said he may try to claim victory on election night even with millions of ballots to be counted and states to be called, as he did at the White House four days ago.
But as the evening wore on it appeared that Democratic hopes of undecideds breaking their way evaporated, as result after result suggested Trump
Roger Stone, longtime Republican provocateur and Trump ally, said he was on course for an extraordinary comeback, fueled by four criminal indictments.
‘It’s a story of perseverance. It’s a story of resilience and just grit,’ he told DailyMail.com. ‘I mean, just grinding it out’.
Kamala Harris’ victory party meanwhile was completely deserted by midnight.
The campaign first told staff to go home and then top Harris advisor Cedric Richmond came out and confirmed the vice president would not be speaking.
As of 3.45am on Wednesday morning the Harris camp hadn’t reacted to the results as the Associated Press waited to make the final call.
The reaction was swift from the network TV pundits who called it a ‘shellacking’ for the Democrats.
In Palm Beach it was a jubilant family affair for Trump who invited hoards of family members and staff on stage.
Ivanka Trump, his granddaughter Kai, 17, his pregnant daughter Tiffany, 31, and his sons Eric, 40, and Donald Trump Jr, 46, were beside him.
His daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, was also in attendance at the celebration, as was Donald Trump Jr’s fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle.
Wearing a blue velvet suit, Ivanka beamed alongside her husband, Jared Kushner, as she listened to her father declare: ‘Frankly this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time.’
Mr Trump thanked his ‘beautiful wife’ Melania, who was stood by his side, and his ‘amazing’ children.
Trump said: ‘I want to thank my whole family, my amazing children – and they are amazing children. Now we all think our children are amazing. Everybody here thinks their children are amazing – but that’s a good thing when you think they are. But Don, Eric, Ivanka, Tiffany, Baron, Lara, Jared, Kimberly, Michael – thank you all.’
Ivanka and her husband have remained noticeably absent from Trump’s campaign, with some even mocking Ivanka when she posted the 16 lessons she has learned as she turned 43 just hours before the election, while her siblings were out campaigning.
She had earlier vowed to stay away from politics, after she and Kushner became two of the former president’s most trusted advisers and principal gatekeepers during his first administration.
But sources have suggested the former First Daughter may once again stand by her father’s side if he retakes the White House.
Following Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, Ivanka and Jared decided to lay low in Miami with their three young children.
Ivanka concentrated on her role as a mother and on her old socialite lifestyle, earning her way back into the good books of pro-Democrat celebrity circles.