Donald Trump, the twice-impeached, criminally convicted former president who survived two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign, has been voted back into the White House.
Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris marks an extraordinary political comeback after he lost to President Biden in 2020, attempted to overturn the election results, and left Washington in disgrace after his most ardent supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on his behalf during the deadly insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump’s third campaign as the Republican presidential nominee was defined by dark, meandering speeches, promises to deport millions of people in the country illegally with the help of the National Guard and local police officers, and threats to use the U.S. military against his domestic foes and “radical-left lunatics,” including Democrats he has called the “enemy from within.”
On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly called the U.S. “a failing country.” While railing against illegal immigration in October, he said the country is “like a garbage can for the world.”
Two weeks before the election, Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly, warned that his former boss fit the “definition of fascist,” that he lacks empathy, and that he had made admiring statements about Adolf Hitler. Soon afterward, Harris began blatantly calling Trump a fascist.
If he serves a full term, Trump, who is 78, will become the oldest U.S. president in history, eclipsing Biden, 81, who dropped out of the race this summer amid concerns about his age and electability following his disastrous debate performance against Trump.