Donald Trump about to be elected president

“This was a movement like no one has ever seen before, and honestly, I believe, this was the greatest political movement of all time,” Trump said as his supporters cheered.

Instead of embracing Harris’ position for a “new way forward,” decisive pluralities in several swing states appear to have opted for Trump’s uncompromising message: that only he can fix a country in decline. Harris did not address supporters on election night, but her campaign co-chair, former U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, told supporters early Wednesday morning that she would do so later that day.

Trump declared nearly two years ago that he would run for office again, and spent the 2024 campaign making clear his eagerness to ignore existing institutional norms and guardrails — conspiratorially portrayed as the “deep state” or bureaucracy — in order to to inflict his vision and exact vengeance on his enemies.

Unlike the first time Trump took the oath of office, this time he would be backed by a more disciplined power structure that has spent years preparing to implement transformative changes to the US government and its policies. Trump and his allies have promised to impose a massive tariff on imported goods that could, for example, shake the economy, and have repeatedly campaigned on launching the largest mass deportation effort in American history.

The difference between 2016 and 2024 is perhaps best epitomized by probability vice president-elect, Ohio Senator JD Vance, who entered public life as a Trump critic in 2016 and turned himself into an ally who would validate even his most outlandish comments and offensive views. He is poised to be an enthusiastic supporter of Trump’s “America First” agenda and a combative attack dog against his rivals.

At the Trump campaign’s official election observation party in West Palm Beach, Florida, the mood grew increasingly boisterous throughout the night as favorable results trickled in from across the country. Allies, supporters and staffers from Trump’s various campaigns filled a large room at the Palm Beach Convention Center, wearing red MAGA hats and assorted pro-Trump paraphernalia.

In Washington, D.C., hundreds of Harris supporters gathered outside this quadrangle of her alma mater, Howard University, on Tuesday evening. In unusually warm weather, people arrived full of hope. But the party atmosphere faded as the night cooled and attendees watched news reports on big TV screens showing Trump ahead in key battleground states.

Although Trump’s 2016 victory was a shock to the system, polls had shown a remarkably static contest between him and Harris after she replaced President Biden first in July.

Still, the result would be an almost unthinkable reversal for the former and future president, who has not only braved political oblivion but also actual attempts on his life.

After the Republican Party outright shunned Trump after a mob of his supporters ransacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, he gradually regained his grip on a party he transformed. And after a gunman’s bullet grazed his ear at a rally in July, coming within a hair’s breadth of killing him, his status as a folk hero for half the country was forever cemented.

Despite all this, Trump remained one of the most unpopular political figures in history, making defeat in this election an almost equally unthinkable gut punch for Democrats.

In 2020, Biden won a narrow but convincing victory over Trump by promising to restore the normalcy lost during his presidency amid a once-in-a-generation pandemic. After taking over the mantle from an ailing Biden this year, Harris’ rallying cry was that Americans “won’t go back.” But despite dissatisfaction with persistently high prices for goods and services, many voters simply associated Trump’s presidency with more favorable economic conditions.

That was the case even among voters who personally disliked Trump but could not justify supporting a vice president whose administration they associated with stifling inflation that made daily survival difficult. One voter from North Carolina told the Globe in October that he considered Trump a dangerous “clown” but felt he had “no choice” but to vote for him because he believed a Trump presidency would improve his financial prospects.

Against that backdrop, Harris may not have succeeded enough to convince voters that going back was such a bad idea after all, even as Democrats criticized Trump for his administration’s support for cutting taxes on the wealthy.

Trump’s apparent victory also calls into question Democrats’ strategy of attacking Trump and Republicans for rolling back abortion rights, which has sparked massive political backlash since the Supreme Court’s conservative majority Roe v. Wade in 2022 destroyed.

The vice president’s campaign theme, “freedom,” focused on restoring reproductive rights and blocking a Trump agenda that she described as extreme or even fascist. She frequently pointed to the right-wing Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 transition blueprint, which was written by several former Trump advisers but disowned by the campaign. And her closing message delivered last week on the National Mall, the same place where Trump incited a mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, focused on the threat he posed to the democratic system.

But Harris faced a clear challenge: trying to run for change while still representing the incumbent administration. She struggled to articulate what she would do differently than Biden, who had built a consistent legislative record that was ultimately overshadowed by negative perceptions of the economy and concerns about his age and cognitive skills.

Trump and the Republicans, buoyed by massive investments in voting and messaging operations from far-right multi-billionaire Elon Musk and other power brokers, ruthlessly blamed Harris for the country’s ills. They also used xenophobia and transphobia to stoke fears that a Harris administration would be too favorable to transgender Americans and undocumented immigrants.

While Trump’s return to power is in flux, the country is still waiting for the election results that will determine what he can do with it. According to the Associated Press, Democrats also lost control of the US Senate, which could give Trump even more power.

Meanwhile, Republicans in the House of Representatives – led by Speaker Mike Johnson, a close Trump ally – are trying to expand their own slim majority in that chamber. Early returns have been inconclusive; in California, where a half-dozen highly competitive races are underway, results may not be known for days or even weeks, if recent election cycles are any indication.

Should Republicans win both chambers of Congress, Trump is poised to have far more power than he was when he enjoyed joint Republican Party control of Washington from 2017 to 2019. At the time, Trump was still a populist outsider and largely failed to implement his agenda, hampered by Republicans in Congress. who oppose his harebrained plans and government subordinates who internally oppose his more extreme plans.

On Capitol Hill, many Trump critics and skeptics have left, replaced by hardcore loyalists who fear retaliation from voters for opposing him. The biggest looming legislative battle in 2025 will be the extension of the tax cuts Trump implemented in 2017, which could serve as a vehicle for a number of populist economic policies that the current Trump-oriented Republican Party will receive much more favorably.

At the same time, the sweeping and brash nature of some newer Trump proposals, such as covering in vitro fertilization treatments for all Americans, has already received with a cold reception among Republicans in Congress.

When it comes to government, Trump and his key allies have repeatedly promised that the “right people” will be installed in key positions to remove any obstacles to the implementation of his agenda.

Since the end of Trump’s first term, he and his allies have proposed a number of executive actions he could take immediately. One particularly drastic proposal that Trump has mentioned is ending the American birthright provision in the 14th Amendment through an executive order, which would almost certainly lead to an immediate legal challenge.

Notably, Trump’s camp is also enjoying using executive orders to reshape the federal bureaucracy and make it much easier for his loyalists to fire officials deemed not to support his policies.

During his election night speech, Trump pledged to move quickly on policy priorities, specifically saying he would “seal those borders.”

“We made history,” Trump said, “for a reason.”

Sam Brodey can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @sambrodey.