Donald Trump wins election in historic comeback after 2020 loss, indictments and bruising campaign

Donald J. Trump’s projected victory over Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election marks a historic and improbable comeback for the former president, who left office in 2021 after failing to overturn the 2020 election results. Afterward, he became the first former president to be charged with either state or federal crimes, with four separate indictments, one of which resulted in conviction.

“We overcame obstacles that nobody ever thought we could,” he said on election night after a bitter, bruising campaign. He vowed to fight for every family and for their futures. “This will truly be the golden age of America,” he vowed.

Trump was projected by CBS News to have won the battleground states of North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — surpassing the electoral vote threshold of 270 by 6 votes with a total of 276. Votes were still being counted in the other battleground states of Michigan, Nevada and Arizona when Trump secured the presidency.

Exit polling shows Trump won overwhelmingly among White voters without a college education and made inroads with Black and Latino men.

Throughout his two-year campaign, Trump hammered President Biden, and later Harris, on inflation and the economy. It’s a message that resonated with voters, whose views on the economy are more negative now than they were in 2020, despite the pandemic that brought the economy to a halt during his presidency. Nationally and across the battleground states, on the question of whether voters are better off now than they were four years ago, more voters said they are financially worse off.

In Georgia, independent voters broke for Trump in Georgia, 54% to 43%, according to CBS News exit polls. This is a group that backed Mr. Biden in 2020 by 9 points. The economy was their top issue.

Harris and Trump attracted equal support from independents in North Carolina, but that meant the vice president was winning a smaller share than Mr. Biden did in 2020. Even with that edge, North Carolina was the lone battleground state Trump won that year.

Trump also ran hard on immigration — as he has for nearly a decade — and vowed at nearly every campaign event that he’d carry out mass deportations if he’s reelected. Exit polling showed that voters also believed Trump would do a better job of confronting illegal immigration at the southern border.

Trump has had an unshakeable base of voters, and in this election, he was able to attract new voters who were undecided — low-propensity, young male voters — turned out for him.

Trump is the first convicted felon to win the presidency. Sentencing for his federal conviction in the New York “hush money” trial is set for Nov. 26 and raises questions about how a president-elect would be punished under the law. He also faces criminal charges in three other cases whose futures are now in doubt.

At 78, Trump is the oldest person to be elected president — breaking the record held by President Biden, who withdrew from the 2024 presidential race in July amid questions about his age and competency. Mr. Biden was also 78 when he took office in 2021, but on Inauguration Day, Trump will be several months older than Mr. Biden was when he was sworn in.

On his path to the presidency, Trump also survived two assassination attempts, one during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, when a gunman’s bullet grazed his ear, and a separate incident at his West Palm Beach golf club on Sept. 15 when a suspect fled after the Secret Service opened fire.

Launched 2024 campaign 2 years ago

Trump launched his 2024 campaign in November 2022, at his home in Florida, shortly after Republicans fell short of their expectations of a “red wave” in the midterm elections. He built his campaign on retribution, anti-immigrant rhetoric and a continued populist shift in his economic and social policies.

He held his first rally in Waco, Texas, months later, on March 24, 2023 — the 30th anniversary of the standoff there between federal agents and Branch Davidian cult led by David Koresh that led to the death of 82 members. Trump characterized his own race as the “final battle” and promised vengeance against perceived political enemies.

“I am your warrior, I am your justice,” Trump said, flanked by “witch hunt” signs surrounding the stage. “For those who have been wronged and betrayed … I am your retribution.”

United States v. Donald J. Trump

Trump’s 2024 campaign was for a few months dominated by the four indictments against him. In March 2023, he was indicted by the Manhattan district attorney on fraud charges stemming from his role in hush money payments made to an adult film star before the 2016 election. 

In addition to the New York case, Trump was indicted in two separate federal cases filed by special counsel Jack Smith. He faced charges in Florida of mishandling classified documents he tried to keep at his home after his presidency at his home. That case was dismissed by a judge who ruled that Smith’s appointment as special counsel was unconstitutional. Smith is appealing that decision. 

In Washington, D.C., he faces charges over his alleged efforts to subvert the peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election. The judge in this case has yet to set a date for the trial as the parties remain in litigation over what classified material can be included, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that presidents have some immunity from prosecution for official actions taken while in office.

In Georgia, he was indicted with over a dozen others on charges stemming from efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. That case has been on hold by an appeals court since June.

Trump pleaded not guilty in all of the cases against him.

Trump’s first indictment and only conviction in the New York hush money trial only bolstered his poll numbers and his fundraising, solidifying his control over the Republican Party in the early stages of the primary campaign. Within 24 hours of his conviction, he raised over $52.8 million.

Republican primaries 

Trump faced a number of primary opponents, including two who served in his administration, former Vice President Mike Pence and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. At the outset, Trump’s biggest threat appeared to be Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a conservative governor whose state had the strongest showing for Republicans in the midterm elections. But DeSantis failed to gain traction with GOP voters and dropped his bid in January after finishing 30 points behind Trump in the Iowa caucuses. 

Haley, Trump’s remaining primary opponent, won only two contests —  Vermont and Washington, D.C. Trump never participated in a primary debate. 

Once Trump clinched the nomination, he installed loyalists inside the Republican National Committee, naming North Carolina GOP chairman Michael Whatley and his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as the party’s co-chairs. The pair focused on “election integrity” in battleground states, filing lawsuits over voter rolls and early-voting laws while they worked to convince conservatives that the early voting system Trump disparaged for years was necessary for him to win.

Trump continued to cast doubt on early voting, which he saw as a tool for Democrats to try to steal the 2024 election from him.

A new race — and an assassination attempt

After Trump and Mr. Biden clinched their respective nominations, their debate, hosted by CNN, was scheduled for June 27. It became the most consequential debate in U.S. history when Mr. Biden’s performance, marred by gaffes, unfinished sentences and mumbling, caused Democratic leaders and voters to question his ability to serve another term because of his age.

Trump did not campaign for 10 days following the debate, as a growing list of Democrats called on Mr. Biden’s cognitive ability to continue his reelection bid. 

Mid-July was a turning point in the 2024 race, upending the presidential campaign.  

On July 13, Trump survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, when his ear was  grazed by a bullet after a gunman fired several times at him during a rally just before the Republican convention. 

A day and a half later, Trump tapped Ohio GOP Sen. JD Vance, a first-term senator and bestselling author of “Hillbilly Elegy,”  to be his running mate.

Days later he accepted the Republican Party nomination for the third time, making him the first Republican to secure the party nomination three times since Richard Nixon. 

A few days later, Mr. Biden exited the race and backed Harris for the Democratic nomination.

Just two months after the attempt on his life in Butler, Trump’s life was put in danger again after an attempted gunman, armed with a rifle, was spotted at his golf course in West Palm Beach on Sept. 15. Trump returned to Butler on Oct. 5 for a rally with Elon Musk. 

Focus on Harris in final days of campaign

With Mr. Biden out of the race, Trump trained their attention onto Harris, whom he disparaged as “low IQ” and “stupid.” 

The Trump campaign labeled Harris “border czar” – a reference to her assignment by Mr. Biden to address the root causes of migration into the U.S. from central American countries – and repeatedly attacked her on immigration. He profanely disparaged her, calling Harris a “sh** vice president” and claiming she was “importing illegal alien rapists and murderers.”

Immigration was a constant in all of three of Trump’s bids for the White House. He promised mass deportations for migrants and promised to establish the death penalty for any migrant who kills a U.S. citizen. 

In the final week before the election, his campaign was embroiled in controversy. His rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden was overshadowed by comments made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage,” among other racist jokes. 

During an interview with Tucker Carlson, he called former Rep. Liz Cheney, one of his most vocal critics, a “war hawk” and suggested she’d have a different opinion on foreign wars if she had guns pointed at her. 

Trump also ramped up his rhetoric against the media, telling supporters two days before the election that he wouldn’t mind if someone tried to shoot through the media riser to assassinate him, as he complained about the bulletproof glass positioned around him. 

In his closing message on the trail in Georgia, Trump promised greatness if he won.

“After all we have been through together, we stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history,” Trump said. “You watch, it’s going to be so good, it’s going to be so much fun. It’ll be nasty a little bit at times, and maybe at the beginning, in particular, but it’s going to be something.”