"We will help our country recover," Trump says as he claims victory

Donald Trump claimed victory on Wednesday and vowed to "heal" the country as the results indicated he was on the brink of defeating Kamala Harris in a stunning White House comeback.

His triumphant speech came despite Fox News being the only network to declare him the winner, with no other U.S. outlets making the call at that point.

Amid cheers and chants of “USA” from jubilant supporters, Trump took the stage at his Florida campaign headquarters, accompanied by his wife Melania and several of his children.

“We are going to help our country heal,” said the former Republican president. “It’s a political victory like our country has never seen before.” U.S. networks had called swing states such as Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina for Trump, with him leading in others, although those states had not yet been officially declared.

Harris's camp quickly fell into gloom. “You won’t hear from the vice president tonight, but you will hear from her tomorrow,” said Cedric Richmond, Harris’s campaign co-chair, as supporters began leaving the watch party in Washington.

In another blow to the Democrats, Trump’s Republican Party also gained control of the Senate, flipping two seats to overturn the narrow Democratic majority.

A Trump victory would send shockwaves worldwide, as U.S. allies in Europe and Asia fear the return of his nationalist policies and admiration for autocrats like Russia’s Vladimir Putin. However, the U.S. dollar surged, and bitcoin hit a record high, while most equity markets rose as traders speculated on a Trump win.

The mood shifted dramatically at Harris’s watch party at Howard University, her alma mater and a historically Black university in Washington, as the results came in. “I am scared,” said Charlyn Anderson. “I am anxious now. I am leaving, my legs can barely move.”

Meanwhile, celebrations grew at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and the nearby watch party.

Tech mogul Elon Musk, a Trump supporter and potential head of a government efficiency commission, posted a picture of himself with the Republican. “Game, set, and match,” Musk wrote on X, the social media platform he owns, alongside Tesla and SpaceX.

Millions of Americans had queued up on Election Day, with even more voting early, making decisions with profound consequences for both the U.S. and the world. They were choosing whether to give Trump a historic comeback or make Harris the first woman to hold the world’s most powerful position.

Tensions ran high, with bomb threats targeting polling stations in Georgia and Pennsylvania. The FBI traced the threats to Russia, accused of attempting to interfere in the election. While the threats were hoaxes, they still disrupted voting procedures.

Harris, 60, had aimed to become only the second Black and first South Asian president. She entered the race dramatically when Biden dropped out in July, while Trump, impeached twice while in office, had survived two assassination attempts and a criminal conviction.

She emphasized Trump’s threat to democracy and her opposition to his stance on abortion bans. Trump, for his part, vowed an unprecedented deportation campaign targeting millions of undocumented immigrants, backed by dark rhetoric.

The election was closely watched worldwide, particularly in conflict zones like Ukraine and the Middle East. Trump has signaled he would cut U.S. aid to Kyiv’s fight against the Russian invasion.