The Republican candidate has won at least 277 Electoral College votes, per The Associated Press.
Donald Trump has been elected to return to the White House as the 47th United States president.
The vote was called for the Republican candidate by The Associated Press news agency early on Wednesday. His victory has been met by international congratulations but is likely to add further uncertainty to a turbulent geopolitical situation.
Results showed Trump beating Vice President Kamala Harris in a race far less tight than expected as he triumphed in key battleground states.
Victory in Wisconsin after earlier triumphs in Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania saw the former president clear the threshold of the 270 Electoral College votes required to clinch the White House in Tuesday’s election.
Trump’s victory in those swing states currently sees him with 277 electoral votes against 224 for Harris. Polls had predicted a much tighter race, but it appears that anger fuelled the Republican’s remarkable comeback from defeat in 2020 and widespread condemnation of his refusal to accept the result.
That refusal sparked a violent insurrection at the US Capitol, and Trump was also convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts.
However, his campaign, which has seen him demonise his political opponents, immigrants and many minorities, tapped into the frustrations of many voters in a bitterly polarised nation.
Speaking to his supporters as he declared victory, Trump claimed he had won “an unprecedented and powerful mandate”.
Anger and resentment
Scott Lucas, a professor of international politics at the University of Dublin, told Al Jazeera that Trump’s victory stemmed from frustrations that have been bubbling within the US public for years.
“There is anger and resentment in the US, which has been there for quite some time. It’s been a trauma since 9/11. It’s been there with the financial crash in 2008-2009. It was there in 2016 when Trump exploited it, and he exploited it again,” Lucas said, adding that Trump was able to do that because the “political system is damaged”.
Concern over the economy, and inflation in particular, under President Joe Biden was a major focus of the campaign.
That also encouraged opposition to the support Washington is giving to Ukraine in its war against Russia. Meanwhile, the failure to rein in Israel’s wars on Gaza and Lebanon has angered Muslim and liberal voters.
Those complex geopolitical issues will test Trump, who is known for his simplistic claims of being capable of quickly solving such issues.
He has promised to end the war in Ukraine in a day, an idea that has Kyiv wary that it could face pressure to strike a deal to hand over territory to Russia. NATO allies, meanwhile, fear Trump will weaken the alliance’s mutual defence guarantees.
Trump is also a strong supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and has boasted he will end the war with Hamas in Gaza in hours.
“Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America. This is a huge victory!” Netanyahu said in a statement after Trump declared victory.
The enthusiasm in Israel also stems from the incoming president’s hawkish approach to Iran, which he is likely to reassert.
China is also braced for a more confrontational relationship with the US under Trump, who is expected to revive staunchly nationalistic trade policies, putting both allies and rivals on edge.
‘Much more dangerous era’
However, at home, supporters will look to Trump to put the focus on the welfare of US citizens while following through on promises to enact an agenda that would transform nearly every aspect of American government.
That will include plans to launch the largest deportation effort in the nation’s history and use the Department of Justice to punish his enemies.
The result is that “we are going into a much more dangerous era for Americans and for the world because this will not be a coherent US policy for America but one pursued for Trump,” Lucas said.
Georg Stanford Brown and Tyne Daly’s interracial marriage stood the test of time despite the prejudices they faced…
Hollywood actors Georg Stanford Brown and Tyne Daly only dated for five months before deciding they wanted to be together forever.
Their love affair began in the 1960s when interracial marriage was considered taboo, illegal, and punishable by law.
They married on June 1, 1966, just one year before interracial marriage became legal across the U.S. As late as 1960 such marriages were illegal in 31 states in the U.S.
Georg Stanford Brown had moved from Havana to Harlem when he was 7 years old and then moved to LA 10 years later where he finished his education, majoring in theater arts.
Although, initially choosing the path of theater arts to ‘do something easy’ he ended up enjoying it and returned to New York to attend the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, working as a school janitor to pay his tuition, earning $80 a week.
It was there that he met his future wife Tyne Daly where they both studied under Philip Burton, Richard Burton’s mentor.
Brown is perhaps best known for his role as Officer Terry Webster, one of the stars of the ABC television series “The Rookies” that aired from 1972 to 1976.
He was also well known for his character Tom Harvey in the mini-series “Roots.”
During his long career as an actor and director, Brown played a variety of film roles, including Henri Philipot in The Comedians and Dr. Willard in Bullitt. In 1984 he starred in The Jesse Owens Story as Lew Gilbert.
When Brown married American singer and actress Tyne Daly she was a household name for her iconic role-playing Mary Beth Lacey, the gun-toting working-mother cop in the hit show “Cagney and Lacey.”
When the couple got married they faced racial prejudice but chose to ignore it – until they appeared on an episode of “The Rookies” together and shared their first on-screen interracial kiss.
Network censors wanted the scene deleted, but the couple stood their grounds, taped, and aired the segment without any issues from those closest to them.
In an interview with the Washington Post in 1985, Daly said she never saw being married to Brown as interracial. She does not, she says, “like pigeonholes.”
She is married to “another member of the human race. I gave up categories a long time ago,” she added.
The couple has three daughters Alisabeth Brown, born December 12, 1967; Kathryne Dora Brown, born February 10, 1971; and Alyxandra Beatris Brown, born October 1, 1985.
Daly said when their daughter Alyxandra was born, “on her birth certificate, under ‘race,’ we put ‘human’; under ‘sex’ we put ‘yes’, and under ethnic origin, we put ‘citizen of the world.’”
Describing her marriage to Brown, Daly said: “I have a good and interesting marriage that has gone on for quite some time and he’s an interesting fellow and we have some fascinating young children . . .”
Brown went into directing, and in 1986, he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Best Director in a Drama Series for the final episode of “Cagney & Lacey.”
Daly went on to star in many Broadway shows playing the role of Madame Arkadina in “The Seagull” in 1992, Cynthia Nixon in the 2006 comedy “Rabbit Hole,” and Maria Callas in “Master Class” in 2011, among others.
In 1990, after 24 years of marriage, Brown, and Daly filed for divorce. Even though their marriage had stood the test of time, they had to go their separate ways due to irreconcilable differences.
Despite divorcing after more than two decades this couple’s love and their fight to ignore the prejudice they faced is an inspiration.
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