Former President Trump secures second term in office after winning both popular vote and battleground states. Photo courtesy of NPR.
JASPER PILARZ | NEWS CO-EDITOR | lpilarz@butler.edu
LILY O’CONNOR | NEWS CO-EDITOR | lkoconnor@butler.edu
Former President Donald Trump has been elected as the 47th president of the United States after winning seven crucial swing states across the country, as well as the popular vote. The election was called at 5:34 a.m. on Wednesday morning by the Associated Press.
This was a major comeback from his loss against Joe Biden in 2020, in which Biden won many of the same swing states. With critical victories in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Georgia, Trump finished election night with 277 total electoral college votes when the race was called. This election was the first time a Republican candidate has won the popular vote since George W. Bush in 2004.
Trump will be the second president to serve two non-consecutive terms. He will also be the first convicted felon elected to the presidency and remains the first president to be re-elected following impeachment.
The re-election of Trump marks a return of a Republican leader not only in the executive branch but also in the legislative and judicial, as Republicans have claimed the majority of the Senate; and are projected to win the House of Representatives because Democrats would need 11 seats to maintain majority, but there are only 10 uncalled races; and hold six of the nine seats in the Supreme Court. Trump will be inaugurated on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025.
Keaton Smith, a sophomore history-political science combined major, said that the Republican shift is comparable to the neoconservative takeover of Ronald Reagan in 1980.
“I’m comparing it mainly to the Reagan Revolution, neoconservative takeover in 1980,” Smith said. “The main difference is, where we did see a massive push to the Republican Party, there was still a large amount of Democrats and they still controlled Congress and they still controlled the courts [during Reagan’s administration]. But, this time around, it’s basically [the 1930 to 1960 administrations] but instead of Democrats in power, you have alt-right MAGA Republicans.”
The former president has campaigned on promises of mass deportation and border security, decreasing inflation and promoting nationalism by defending America as a global military power.
As battleground states such as Georgia and Michigan flipped from blue to red, Trump was able to secure victory in each state by a 2.3% and 1.4% percent margin respectively.
In Trump’s victory speech from Palm Beach, Florida, he said that his victory is “a magnificent victory for the American people that will allow us to make America great again.”
Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris addressed the nation from her alma mater, Howard University, at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, following a phone call with Trump in which she conceded the race officially. In Harris’s speech, she shared that she “will help Trump and his team with their transition … and [she] will engage in a peaceful transfer of power.”
Many students were surprised by the election results, while others were confident in the results, even before the election.
Vanessa Little, a junior strategic communication and political science double major, said that this could be due to social media.
“For our generation, I feel like on social media we’re in such big echo chambers,” Little said. “You’re in these echo chambers where you’re only seeing TikToks about one political party side, one political party candidate, so in your mind, you’re thinking, ‘Oh, they’re going to win, they’re going to win, they’re going to win.’ When, in reality, that doesn’t really reflect the majority of the population.”
Those in opposition to Trump’s election have cited a rise in hateful and alt-right ideology as a concern now that Trump is set to return to the White House.
History and political science major Kiana Johnson said she deleted her account on Yik Yak after the election was called.
“You can already see the hate and the boldness that people are already starting to express,” Johnson said. “I had to delete Yik Yak because I got on it the next morning — and usually I go on Yik Yak for a laugh because some of it’s funny — but you started seeing stuff immediately, where people were … already saying stuff about how they’re glad that women’s rights are in trouble, or people reposting the ‘your body, my choice,’ type of stuff. I think it’s just very disheartening.”
The results of the 2024 election have shifted the US political climate into an unprecedented time of Republican control. As the country shifts from multiple-party control of the branches of the government to a majority republican government, changes can be anticipated in economics, border control and foreign policy, with 47th President Donald Trump at the forefront.
Editor-in-Chief Leah Ollie and Managing Editor Aidan Gregg contributed reporting to this story.
