Greatest Comeback In History: Trump Fights His Way Back Into Power

Donald J. Trump has defeated Vice President Kamala Harris, riding a wave of anxiousness over inflation and illegal immigration to bring a strongman-style politics to the White House, and making him the first former president in more than 120 years to win a second term after a re-election defeat.

Voters chose Mr. Trump as the stronger leader for uncertain times and as one they saw as a proven economic champion. They looked past his 34 felony convictions, his role inspiring an assault on the Capitol and his indictments on charges of attempting to subvert the 2020 election and to hold on to classified documents.

Mr. Trump’s victory in one of the most tumultuous campaigns in memory — including two failed assassination attempts — makes him, at 78, the oldest man to be elected president.

Speaking to supporters in Palm Beach, Fla., in the early hours of the morning, Mr. Trump declared, “This will forever be remembered as the day the American people regained control of their country.”

He will return to Washington with his party firmly in control of the Senate after four years in the minority. That will ease his push to install proven loyalists in his cabinet and other high-level posts in the government.

Republicans are still battling to hold their slim majority in the House. The outcome could determine the lengths Mr. Trump could go to with his legislative agenda, but he has vowed to carry out many of his plans whether Congress agrees or not.

For Ms. Harris, who sought to make history not only as the first woman but also as the first Black and Asian American woman to be elected president, the hard-fought contest was a three-month sprint that began after President Biden bowed out of his re-election campaign under pressure.

In the end, the headwinds of post-pandemic inflation, soaring housing prices and economic uncertainty were too much for her to overcome.

Mr. Trump centered his campaign on sealing the U.S.-Mexican border and deporting undocumented immigrants by the millions. He promised to impose sweeping tariffs to strengthen domestic industries. And in the final weeks of the campaign, he made a flurry of expensive financial promises to different sectors of the electorate, promising to abolish taxes on tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits.

His closing message boiled down to blaming Ms. Harris for all the perceived failures of the unpopular Biden administration, under the slogan “Kamala Broke It. Trump Will Fix It.” With polls showing the electorate hungry for change, that message — and Ms. Harris’s status as the sitting vice president — helped deliver him victory.