US elections live: Donald Trump retakes White House; Kamala Harris expected to concede in afternoon speech | US elections 2024

Americans are digesting Donald Trump’s decisive victory in yesterday’s presidential election, which saw him win every single swing state that has been called so far, make inroads in traditionally Democratic areas, and potentially even become the first Republican in two decades to win the national popular vote. The strength of the former president’s comeback was further confirmed just a few minutes ago, when the Associated Press reported that Trump had won battleground state Michigan. Kamala Harris is expected to announce her concession to Trump in a speech at 4pm, after a night that saw her fellow Democrats lose control of the Senate and potentially fail in their attempt to retake the majority in the House of Representatives. Global leaders, from Justin Trudeau in Canada to Cyril Ramaphosa in South Africa, have spent today reaching out to welcome Trump back to power.

Here’s what else has happened so far today:

• Trump has already spoken to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was one of the first world leaders to congratulate him this morning.

• Jeff Bezos, the Amazon billionaire who owns the Washington Post blocked it from endorsing Harris, congratulated Trump on his win.

• Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House, predicts his party will maintain its majority. While the outcome of dozens of elections for seats in Congress’s lower chamber have not been called yet, a GOP majority there and in the Senate would allow Trump to enact his legislative Agenda, which may include aspects of Project 2025.

• US support to Ukraine is newly uncertain now that Trump is heading back to the White House. The soon-to-be-president has repeatedly said he would bring the war with Russia to a swift conclusion, if elected.

• Nikki Haley, Trump’s former UN ambassador who challenged him unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination, urged Harris to concede.

• Liz Cheney, a Republican former congresswoman who lost her seat after breaking with Trump and later endorsed Harris, called on Americans to accept the election results “whether we like the outcome or not”.

In a few short hours, we expect Kamala Harris to concede the election to Donald Trump, a man who embraced some of the country’s ugliest political impulses – racism, misogyny and nativism – and turned them against her, the nation’s first female and first Black vice-president.

Harris’s 2018 memoir, The Truths We Hold, opens with a scene from election night 2016, when California chose her as the state’s next senator as Trump won a shock election against Hillary Clinton.

Harris was at dinner with her family as they awaited the results. During the meal, she said Doug let out a “signature groan”, leaned over and showed her his phone. The New York Times’ probability meter showed Trump with a strong chance of winning.

By the time she arrived at her own election night party, Trump had been declared the victor. Harris said she tossed aside a draft of her acceptance speech.

Instead, she told the crowd: “Do we retreat or do we fight? I say we fight.”

It’s impossible to know what Harris will say in her concession speech. After America returned Trump to power, we will see if Harris still thinks the answer is to fight.

Donald Trump has won the state of Michigan, reclaiming the battleground state and its 15 electoral votes for the Republican party after Joe Biden flipped it in 2020.

The Associated Press declared Trump the winner at 12.54pm EST. The Guardian relies on the Associated Press to determine the outcomes of elections across the United States.

Kamala Harris will deliver a speech at 4pm EST (21.00 GMT) today, the White House has confirmed.

The vice-president is likely to concede the presidential election to Donald Trump, who the Associated Press declared the winner early this morning.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, held a phone call with Donald Trump after his election victory, his office said.

Netanyahu’s office said he was among the first world leaders to call Trump after his victory.

“The conversation was warm and cordial,” the Israeli prime minister’s office said.

“The prime minister congratulated Trump on his election victory, and the two agreed to work together for Israel’s security. The two also discussed the Iranian threat.”

Democrats across the country were left in disbelief and searching for answers as they confronted the reality of another Donald Trump presidency.

As Kamala Harris’s chances of winning dwindled, the vice-president decided not to address her supporters gathered at Howard University in Washington DC on Tuesday night, instead scheduling an address for 4pm ET on Wednesday.

In the meantime, Democratic operatives and strategists and others filled the void, expressing their disappointment and already beginning to pick apart what went wrong for Harris and the Democratic party.

Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who ran against Donald Trump for the Republican presidential ticket, has congratulated Trump on a “strong win”.

“The American people have spoken,” Haley posted to X this morning. “Now, it’s time for the American people to come together, pray for our country, and start the process of a peaceful transition.”

“That begins with Kamala Harris conceding. You can’t just talk about unity in a campaign, you have to show it regardless of the outcome,” she added.

As we reported earlier, Harris is expected to call Trump and deliver a concession speech later today.

Robert Tait

He was written off as a drag on the presidential ticket, mocked by political opponents as “weird”, falsely rumored to have had sex with a couch, and pilloried as a misogynist for labelling women without children as “childless cat ladies”.

Now JD Vance – the butt of a spate of Democratic and liberal jokes for his awkward stump persona and much else – has turned the tables on his detractors.

Donald Trump’s emphatic election triumph is set to put the 40-year-old Ohio senator just a heartbeat away from the presidency, serving under a chief executive who is 78 and has been the target of two failed assassination attempts.

It is a dizzying rise for a man who was elected to the Senate just two years ago and now finds himself about to become the third-youngest person in US history to hold the office of vice-president.

While Trump’s opponents and many critics dread his return to the Oval Office and the levers of power, Vance waiting in the wings hardly gives them cause to feel reassured.