Alex Brandon/AP
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Former President Donald Trump was poised to return to the White House for a second time, ending on the brink of victory over Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday evening.
After waging a dark campaign of retaliation, Trump tried to strike a conciliatory tone in a rambling victory speech at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, where thousands of cheering supporters had gathered for what Trump promised would be “the last rally.” During the speech, which included some of the strange tangents he is known for, Trump declared his intention to “help heal the country” and promised that his next administration would be “America’s golden age.” He acknowledged his family and thanked his campaign, and after Senator J.D. Vance said a few words, Trump joked, “It turned out to be a good choice!”
Among the others he thanked for his win were podcasters Joe Rogan and Theo Von, in recognition of the underappreciated role the medium played in helping the young men who helped return him to power. Trump made scant mention of his opponent, focusing instead on his remarkable comeback, which he called “a triumph of democracy.”
“It is time to put the divisions of the past four years behind us,” he said.
In July, after President Joe Biden stepped aside and Harris became the Democratic nominee, polls showed the race all but dead, with both Harris and Trump within the margin of error in all major swing states. But Trump managed to break through the “blue wall” state of Pennsylvania, which Harris couldn’t afford to lose. He also won handily in North Carolina and Georgia, and appeared to be on his way to victory in Wisconsin. By the end of the evening it seemed almost certain that he would surpass the 270 electoral votes needed to win; he was also ahead in the national popular vote.
Harris did well with female voters of all ages and regions, but it wasn’t enough to make up for the ground she lost among black men, but especially among Latino voters, who favored Trump in surprisingly large numbers based on exit polls to break. . Trump’s campaign focused on chipping away at support from those traditionally Democratic groups, and while they still voted for Harris, enough of those voters switched sides to make a difference.
As a 2024 candidate, Trump himself was no more disciplined than in 2016 or 2020. But his campaign was much more professional than in his previous races. “Donald Trump is a movement,” former Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) told me in the spring. “That’s how he originally won this thing. But it was kind of a rag label. This time he has everything going for him. He has a huge, disciplined ground operation, a coordinated messaging operation.”
Much of that, Davis surmised, could be attributed to the campaign’s co-chair Chris LaCivita. “He is the kind of man Trump listens to outside the family and who can take control.”
But in October, Trump appeared to return to form when he defeated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. into the group and promised to put him in charge of “making America whole again.” Kennedy went on to make news with crazy promises that the second Trump administration would ban and abolish vaccines for children fluoride in drinking water.
Trump also briefly brought back Corey Lewandowski, his 2016 campaign manager, who fell from Trump’s power in 2021 after the wife of a major donor accused him of unwanted sexual advances. Despite this series of self-inflicted wounds, campaign chairs LaCivita and Susie Wiles ultimately let “Trump be Trump” while keeping the rest of the campaign on track and focused.
During the closing days of the campaign, the Daily beast published a story claiming that LaCivita “double-dived” and made millions from Trump’s campaign and its ad buys (he vociferously denied the claim). The Atlantic Ocean later reported that the story had infuriated Trump, who considered firing LaCivita. In previous campaigns, Trump had hired and fired a handful of campaign managers, including Paul Manafort, who eventually went to prison for money laundering, tax fraud and illegal foreign lobbying activities related to his years working for Ukrainian politicians. (Trump later forgave him.) But Wiles and LaCivita managed to stay on for the strong finish.
Trump also consolidated his support among the nation’s business leaders in a way he had not done in his previous two campaigns. Most notably, billionaire Elon Musk played a leading role in Trump’s campaign, spending $150 million of his own money to finance a last-minute ballot measure by paying an army of candidates to knock on the candidate’s door . (Trump spent a few minutes of his speech praising “Elon” and his “spaceship.”) Whether Musk can really take credit for Trump’s victory is an open question. Especially since some of those workers seemed to be doing a good job of taking Musk’s money and not much else.
News items noted that as many as a quarter of the voter contacts made by Musk’s canvassers in Arizona and Nevada were fake, because the workers figured out how to game the canvassing app to make it look like they were knocking in the bushes for every last vote , when in reality they were hanging out at Starbucks. But Trump’s victory will undoubtedly also be seen as a victory for Musk, and perhaps encouragement for others oligarchs to take a more direct role in campaigning, making the national party even weaker.
Trump has promised that among his first acts upon taking office will be to close the border, release some of the jailed January 6 rioters, fire special counsel Jack Smith (who has been investigating Trump for his mishandling with secret documents and his role in inciting the terrorist movement). January 6 riot), and launch his campaign of mass deportations.
Sometime before Pennsylvania was called, Cedric Richmond, co-chair of Vice President Harris’ campaign, informed her supporters that she would not speak tonight and would address them tomorrow morning.
This is a development story. Check back for updates.