Donald J. Trump has all but won the 2024 presidential race. The AP declared the previous president the winner within the pivotal swing state of Pennsylvania, meaning that he’s more likely to defeat Vice President Kamala Harris to retake the White House.
A win in Pennsylvania put Trump just 4 electoral votes shy of officially defeating Harris. An especially likely win for the previous president in Alaska or any of the outstanding battleground states — Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona or Nevada — would send him back to the Oval Office.
Trump and the GOP emerged victorious within the race to run the federal government’s executive branch after a contentious and blistering populist campaign that saw him air his many grievances about losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden.
Trump’s campaign was punctuated by the various rulings made against him for multiple legal cases, in addition to several attempts against his life. In May, a Latest York jury found the previous (and now future) president guilty of 34 felony counts; he’ll now be the primary president to enter the White House after being found guilty of a felony. Sentencing within the president-elect’s so-called “hush money case” is scheduled for Nov. 26.
While bouncing across the election’s battleground states as he realigned his Make America Great Again movement back to its original form — a presidential campaign — the 78-year-old former president was shot within the ear while speaking at an open-air campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump recovered quickly and attended the GOP convention in Philadelphia in August, only to learn of a possible second attempt on his life after a gunman was discovered outside one among his golf courses in Florida in September.
Nowhere was Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party more apparent than on the 2024 GOP convention. He handily vanquished Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in addition to his own vp Mike Pence, his former cabinet member Nikki Haley and other contenders for the party’s nomination. Trump opted out of attending all primary debates and still held a double-digit lead over all challengers throughout his two-year bid.
Trump’s nearly two-year campaign for the 2024 race — he announced his candidacy on Nov. 15, 2022 — continued his aggressive rally style and populist messaging, this time using his rallies as a platform to air grievances about his legal challenges and the 2020 election in front of his loyal followers.
Trump carried on along with his lies concerning the 2020 election, claiming that it was stolen by the Democrats in a so-called “Big Lie” that took hold along with his masses. He also steadfastly defended the MAGA supporters who took part within the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol because the 2020 vote was being certified by Congress. The financial cost of the president-elect’s lies concerning the 2020 election teetered toward $1 billion at the top of 2023.
A serious gamble got here from the Trump campaign over the weekend with a controversial rally at Madison Square Garden. Multiple Trump surrogates took the stage in Latest York to rail against immigrants, Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party and multiple election issues; overall it created a dark, concluding moment for Trump’s third White House bid. Furthermore, a joke about Puerto Rico being a “floating garbage island” by comic Tony Hinchcliffe landed with a thud — it also can have cost Trump a piece of the Latino vote after outrage ensured over the next days, including from celebrities Jennifer Lopez, Bad Bunny, Nicky Jam and more.
Trump’s aggressive schedule of rallies continued into election eve. This week, he held events in Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina.
