The 2024 presidential election is in the books after a tumultuous campaign culminated in a stunning political comeback for former President Trump.
Trump will take office again in January, a little more than four years since the Capitol Riot of Jan. 6, 2021 was widely assumed to have ended his political career.
He will become the first president since Grover Cleveland in the late 19th century to serve nonconsecutive terms.
Vice President Harris called Trump to concede on Wednesday and addressed her crestfallen supporters later that day from Howard University.
“While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign,” she said
After the high drama of Election Day itself, here are the big winners and losers.
Winners
President-elect Trump
The obvious winner — but it’s worth underscoring what an extraordinary comeback Trump has completed.
After two impeachments, a criminal conviction, three other criminal cases and innumerable controversies, he will soon be president again.
A onetime reality TV star who was dismissed as a crude self-promoter when he announced his first presidential run in 2015 has written himself into the history books — for good or ill — as a once-in-a-generation figure.
His many critics fear the damage they think he will wreak on the nation in a second term.
But it’s an extraordinary win by anyone’s standards.
Vice President-elect Vance
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) took a lot of flak in the early days of his stretch as Trump’s running mate.
Controversial comments that the senator had made in the past — most obviously an ill-advised reference to “childless cat ladies” — were seen as gifts to the Harris campaign.
There was even speculation about whether Trump had made an error by listening to Vance fans including his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and putting the Ohio senator on the ticket.
But the negative publicity around Vance faded as the campaign wore on.
Now the 40-year-old is vice-president elect and the obvious heir........