On Nov. 6, the 60th quadrennial presidential election came to an official close with the Republican Party’s candidate Donald Trump as the winner and future 47th President of the United States for a second non-consecutive term. Here are some key moments that led up to this historic result.
Following the start of the 2024 presidential race, the incumbent President Joe Biden of the Democratic Party initially ran for re-election against Donald Trump, making him the presumptive nominee, with little opposition against him. However, following what was marginally agreed upon to be a poor presidential debate in June of 2024, the Democratic Party began voicing their concerns for Biden’s health and old age and called for Biden to drop from the running.
Although he was initially determined to remain in the running, Biden inevitably withdrew from the race on July 21, 2024. His Vice President, Kamala Harris, filled his role as the Democratic Party’s candidate. This made Biden the first incumbent president to pull out of a presidential race since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968.
Donald Trump of the Republican Party ran for a second, non-consecutive term after losing the election to Biden in 2020. He was nominated after winning the Republican primaries in the 2024 Republican National Convention with his running mate being J.D Vance. The Trump Campaign had been notably renowned for making numerous false claims to the American public; the most controversial being his claim that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him. The former president stated, “If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us” following his loss in the 2020 election.
In May of 2024, Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts. The future president now remains under multiple indictments for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. With all of this stacked up against the former president, Republicans were left worried about whether or not their candidate would be able to hold his own in the election.
On Sept. 10, 2024, Vice President Harris and former president Trump took the stage to begin their first presidential debate after Biden’s drop from the running. ABC News anchors, David Muir and Lindsay Davis moderated the debate. “I want to begin tonight with the issue voters repeatedly say is their number one issue, and that is the economy and the cost of living in this country,” said Muir.
Both Harris and Trump gave their responses to the question. Harris’s response had much to do with her plan to lift up the American middle class, stating, “I believe in the ambition, the aspirations, the dreams of the American people. And that is why I have actually a plan to build what I call an opportunity economy.” She then goes into a brief explanation on what exactly an opportunity economy would entail. In short, her plan was to extend tax cuts on families of $6,000, as well as a $50,000 tax deduction to start-up small businesses.
Trump’s response leaned more towards tariffs on foreign countries, highlighting the pressing issue that is America’s inflation. “Other countries are going to finally, after 75 years, pay us back for all that we’ve done for the world.”
“Look, we’ve had a terrible economy because [of] inflation. It breaks up countries. We have inflation like very few people have ever seen before. Probably the worst in our nation’s history,” said the former president. He then explains how the rise of inflation has been a nationwide disaster for every class. However, the former president failed to explain a plan he has in place to bring said disaster to an end.
When asked about whether or not Trump had a plan in mind, the former president infamously responded with, “I have concepts of a plan. I’m not president yet.” This response would go on to blow up on TikTok, becoming a meme. Of course, this is not at all an inadequate response. It’s perfectly reasonable to not have a set plan in place for a presidency that is not yet yours and many Republicans agreed upon that.
Kicking off the night of Nov. 5, 2024, CNN News shared the results from a recent poll where they had asked voters their current moods about the state that America has been in for the last four years. “Pretty dower mood in terms of the way people feel things are going in the United States nationally,” stated CNN News anchor, David Chalian. The poll showed results of 7% of the population feeling enthusiastic, 19% feeling satisfied, 43% feeling dissatisfied and 29% of the population feeling angry.
Following Donald Trump’s win of the election, social media erupted with arguments between both parties on the results of the election. Politically fueled songs like “Labour” by Paris Paloma, which highlights the hypocrisy and misogyny of our current government and society and “Only The Young” by Taylor Swift, which talks about the importance of the individual’s voice and the power of the younger generation skyrocketed in Spotify streams in under 24 hours.
Many have expressed concerns for the possibility of a 900-page policy known as “Project 2025” that highlights the Trump Administration’s plans for the government and what they want America’s future to look like come January. Here’s what Donald Trump had to say about it, “I have not read it. I do not want to read it, purposely. I’m not going to read it.” Whether or not the future president is truthful about his standpoint on the policy is up to personal interpretation.
Unfortunately for the Democratic Party, Kamala Harris’s result of 226 electoral votes is going down in history as the worst election performance by a Democratic candidate since Michael Dukakis in 1988.
On Jan. 20, 2025, at 78 years old, Donald Trump will become the oldest president and the second president to be elected for a non-consecutive term in 132 years, with his running mate, J.D Vance, becoming the 50th, and first millennial Vice President of the United States.