*As he declares victory, saying “We made it”
The UK prime minister said: “As the closest of allies, we stand shoulder to shoulder in defence of our shared values of freedom, democracy and enterprise.”
Elsewhere, Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelenskyy said he looked forward to “an era of a strong United States of America under President Trump’s decisive leadership”.
There had been questions about whether the US would continue supporting Ukraine, after former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said a Trump win would probably be bad news for the country which was invaded by Russia in 2022.
But Zelenskyy said in a meeting Trump in September that they “discussed in detail the Ukraine-US strategic partnership, the Victory Plan, and ways to put an end to Russian aggression against Ukraine”.
He’s been joined in congratulating Trump by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Turkey’s prime minister Viktor Orban.
In Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu has congratulated Trump after he was projected to become the 47th President of his country.
Incoming 47th President-elect of the United States of America, Donald Trump of the Republican Party, has said he’s going to make America great again as he has projected to win the presidential election.
He made this known in his speech on Wednesday while addressing voters after securing 266 electoral college votes, ahead of Kamara Harry, Presidential candidate of Democratic Party (194).
“This is the greatest political movement of all time.
“We are going to help our country heal. We are going to fix our border.
“Our country was devastated before. I want to thank the American people for electing me as the 45th President and now the 47th President of the US.
Tinubu in his congratulatory message was conveyed on Wednesday via a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Information & Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
In the statement, Tinubu said he is looking forward to strengthening the ties between Nigeria and the United States amid the complex challenges and opportunities of the contemporary world.
He said: “Together, we can foster economic cooperation, promote peace, and address global challenges that affect our citizens.
“Trump’s victory reflects the trust and confidence the American people have placed in his leadership.”
Tinubu added that given Trump’s experience as the 45th president of the United States, his return to the White House will usher in an era of earnest, beneficial, and reciprocal economic and development partnerships between Africa and the United States.
Trump will be declared the winner of the historic US election with 270 electoral college votes count.
He told supporters in West Palm Beach on Wednesday morning: “This will truly be the golden age of America – that’s what we have to have.
“This is a magnificent victory for the American people that will allow us to make America great again.”
Latest updates from the election results
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and Trump mega-donor, was with the Republican nominee as the results came in.
Trump could be on track for a clean sweep of the seven swing states needed to win the White House and he might even win the overall popular vote nationally – a feat he fell short of when first elected in 2016.
He is projected to win Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia. CBS says Wisconsin is leaning towards the Republican and he is ahead in the other so-called Rust Belt state of Michigan. The results are not final.
He also has a solid lead in Nevada, while the race remains tight in the other sun belt battleground of Arizona.
As expected, Trump has swept conservative strongholds from Florida to Idaho, while Harris won liberal states from New York to California, CBS projects.
The Democrat had been expected to address a crowd on election night at Howard University in Washington DC, where she was an undergraduate, but it emerged after midnight that she would not appear.
Following the announcement by campaign co-chairman Cedric Richmond, the crowd all but disappeared from Harris HQ at the historically black college.
CBS exit poll data suggests Vice-President Harris – who was hoping to become America’s first woman president and campaigned heavily for abortion rights – may have under-performed with women.
Some 54% of female voters cast their ballots for her, the numbers indicate. But Joe Biden won the support of 57% of women in 2020.
Black and Latino voters also appeared slightly less likely to support Harris than they were to back Biden four years ago, according to Associated Press exit poll data.
Congress is also up for grabs in Tuesday’s vote.
In what would be a major boost for a Trump presidency, CBS projects Republicans will win control of the Senate after wresting two seats in West Virginia and Ohio from the Democrats and seeing off a competitive challenger in Texas.
Neither party seemed to have an overall edge in the House, which Republicans narrowly control.
Around 86 million voters cast their ballots early amid one of the most turbulent campaigns in recent American history.
Harris, 60, only became the Democratic Party candidate in July, after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race under pressure from within the party.
Trump, 78, was the target of two assassination plots – narrowly avoiding a sniper’s bullet in Pennsylvania.
He would be the oldest president ever elected. He was the only president to be impeached twice and the first former president to be criminally convicted.
Both sides have armies of lawyers on standby for legal challenges on and after election day.
Law enforcement agencies nationwide were on high alert for potential violence, but it has been peaceful so far.
About 30 bomb threats hoaxes targeted election-related locations nationwide on Tuesday, more than half of them in the state of Georgia alone, reports CBS.
