Donald scripts history; trumps Harris to become 47th US Prez

Washington: Donald Trump was on Wednesday elected president of the US for a second term in one of the greatest political comebacks in American history, four years after an election loss in 2020 that sparked a violent insurrection at the US Capitol. The 78-year-old Republican leader, convicted of felony charges and awaiting sentencing in a hush-money case in New York, defeated his Democratic rival Kamala Harris in a bitterly fought election.

According to races called by the Associated Press up to 7 pm (IST), 277 electoral votes had gone to Trump and 224 to Harris. Trump, the oldest person in US history to be elected president, crossed the halfway 270 votes-mark in electoral college votes with victory in the battleground state of Wisconsin.

Addressing his supporters at West Palm Beach in Florida, Trump declared his victory in the presidential, calling the mandate "unprecedented and powerful".