Despite counting continuing in the United States elections, former president Donald Trump has claimed victory.
Addressing supporters tonight, Donald Trump said: “This was a movement like nobody’s ever seen before, and frankly, this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time. There’s never been anything like this in this country, and maybe beyond.”
“And now it’s going to reach a new level of importance, because we’re going to help our country. We’ll help our country … we have a country that needs help, and it needs help very badly. We’re going to fix our borders. We’re going to fix everything about our country. And we made history for a reason tonight, and the reason is going to be just that we overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible, and it is now clear that we’ve achieved the most incredible political thing.
“I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honour of being elected your 47th president and your 45th president, and every citizen, I will fight for you, for your family and your future. Every single day, I will be fighting for you and with every breath in my body, I will not rest until we have delivered the strong, safe and prosperous America that our children deserve and that you deserve. This will truly be the golden age of America.”
Trump is the first president to serve two nonconsecutive terms since Grover Cleveland in 1892 — and only the second in history. Trump is also the first Republican to win the popular vote since George W. Bush, 20 years ago.
Trump invited running mate JD Vance to speak from the podium. "I think we just witnessed the greatest political comeback in the history of the United States of America," Vance said.
Vice President Kamala Harris chose not to address supporters in Washington, D.C.
Cedric Richmond, Harris' campaign co-chair told NBC News: "We still have votes to count. We still have states that have not been called. You will hear from her tomorrow."
Trump has so far secured 266 electoral votes and Vice President Kamala Harris has 223, according to Washington Post projections (6:47 pm AEDT). 270 electoral votes are needed to win.
Some swing states will count through the night, with Wisconsin expected to report around 4 am local time/9 pm AEDT. Michigan will also likely report overnight local time. Voting continues in parts of Nevada, as those who arrived before the polls closed cast their ballots.
CNN senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak said: “It goes almost without saying that with Pennsylvania called for Trump, there is virtually no path for Harris to win. This was the state that always was going to be the linchpin of the election, and the state where Harris campaigned the most.”
Polls have officially closed in every state. The New York Times estimates Trump is favoured to win the election, saying he has the advantage in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
North Carolina and Georgia have been called for Trump, and are the only swing states with a projected winner so far.
Earlier, Harris campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon reportedly told campaign staff: “We have known all along that our clearest path to 270 electoral votes lies through the Blue Wall states [Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin]. And we feel good about what we’re seeing.”
“We’ve been saying for weeks that this race might not be called tonight,” O'Malley Dillon said. "It takes time for all the votes to be counted — and all the votes will be counted. That’s how our system works. What we do know is this race is not going to come into focus until the early morning hours.”
Control of the Senate and House of Representatives will be decided in this election. 42 Senate seats have been called for Democrats, while 50 have been called for Republicans.
So far, Republicans have picked up two Senate seats from Democrats, in West Virginia and Ohio. Democrats have taken one House seat from Republicans, in New York.
Despite being shut out of the Senate majority since 2021, CNN projects Republicans will win control of the chamber.
In North Carolina, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein defeated Republican Mark Robinson. Robinson met a national firestorm after CNN reported he called himself a “Black Nazi” on a pornographic website.
Bomb threats were reported at polling places in Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Georgia. While some polling places in these states were briefly closed, "none of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far," the FBI said.
“We’ve heard some threats that were of Russian origin. I don’t know how to describe that that’s viable – we don’t think they are, but in the interest of public safety, we always check that out, and we’ll just continue to be very responsible when we hear about stuff like that,” said Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
“They’re up to mischief, it seems, and they don’t want us to have a smooth, fair and accurate election,” he said.
The FBI is investigating the threats, according to both the agency and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.
Similar threats were found in Wisconsin and Michigan, though they did not disrupt voting.
The Republican National Committee and Georgia Republican Party filed a motion to stop additional voting hours at six Georgia polling places that temporarily closed due to the threats.
Voting hours were also extended in Cambria County, Pennsylvania after a software issue prevented ballots from being scanned. Those ballots will be re-counted by hand.
Maryland and New York are projected to have passed a measure to add the right to an abortion to their state constitutions. A similar measure was narrowly defeated in Florida, falling just short of the 60% threshold.
Additional reporting by Harlan Ockey.