Watch: Donald Trump wins US 2024 presidential election

NEW YORK – Republican candidate Donald Trump secured the US presidency on Wednesday in a comeback victory four years after he was voted out of the White House, as tens of millions of voters embraced a vision of leadership likely to test democratic institutions at home and relations abroad.

“I’m not going to start a war; I’m going to stop wars,” Trump said in his victory speech on Wednesday.

His victory in the swing state of Wisconsin pushed him over the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency, since as of 11 o’clock a.m. ET (1600 GMT), he had won 279 electoral votes to Harris’s 223 with several states yet to be counted, Edison Research projected.

He also led Harris by more than five million votes in the popular count.

Trump walked on stage to his campaign song Proud to be an American and was joined by his children and grandchildren, including Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, who were uninvolved in this campaign.

Trump said God spared his life for a reason, and that reason was to “save our country and to restore America to greatness.”

“And now, we are going to fulfill that mission together,” he said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Trump to congratulate him. They discussed “the Iranian threat” and the need to work together for Israel’s security, the Prime Minister’s Office said.

“The conversation was warm and cordial,” it said.

Israel is engaged in direct warfare on two main fronts, Lebanon and Gaza. There has been a stronger push for a diplomatic resolution concerning Lebanon compared to the South, where the situation in this regard appears to remain unclear.

Still, 101 hostages remain in Hamas captivity. Seven of them hold American citizenship, and their families implored Trump and his transition team on Wednesday to work hand in hand with President Joe Biden and his administration officials to secure their immediate release.

“For 397 days, Americans – Omer [Neutra], Edan [Alexander], Judy [Weinstein Haggai], Gad [Haggai], Keith [Samuel Siegel], Sagui [Dekel-Chen] and Itay [Chen] – have suffered at the hands of Hamas terrorists in Gaza,” said the group.

“This is an urgent, catastrophic humanitarian crisis, not a partisan issue; our family members in captivity in Gaza need a bipartisan coalition of brave, committed leaders to bring them home,” the families said, adding that the hostages cannot wait any longer.

“They are depending on us and on Republican and Democratic leaders to seize this moment,” they said.

In a separate statement, Liz Hirsh Naftali, the great aunt of four-year-old Abigail Mor Edan, who was taken hostage on October 7, 2023, and released 50 days later, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that the president-elect and Biden must pressure Netanyahu, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, and the rest of Israel’s leadership to make a deal “that demonstrates their unachieved commitment for over a year for the hostages’ release.”

Equally, they must pressure Qatari, Egyptian, Iranian, and Gulf leadership to bring about a deal that releases the hostages once and for all, stops the fighting, and brings humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in Gaza, according to Naftali.

“This is the greatest priority for the day after the US election of 2024 as it relates to Israel and the hostages – make a deal to release all of the hostages, cease the fighting, and bring humanitarian aid to Gaza,” Naftali said.

“Until then – everyone loses, and sadly, more hostages and innocent people will die,” she added.

In Florida, Trump said he believed his victory “was... the greatest political moment of all time. There’s never been anything like this in this country. And now it’s going to reach a new level of importance because we’re going to help our country heal... We have a country that needs help, and it needs help very badly.”

The Trump campaign “made history for a reason tonight,” and that’s because they overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible, the president-elect said.

“And it is now clear that we’ve achieved the most incredible political thing,” he added.

Trump said winning the popular vote was “very nice, very nice.”

“We have a great feeling of love in this very large room with unbelievable people standing by my side. These people have been incredible. They made the journey with me, and we’re going to make you very happy,” he said.

“We’re going to make you very proud of your vote. I hope that you’re going to be looking back someday and say: ‘This was one of the truly important moments of my life when I voted for this group of people,’” Trump continued.

The president-elect said America has given the US an “unprecedented and powerful mandate... We have taken back control of the Senate.”

“And it also looks like we’ll be keeping control of the House of Representatives,” he added.

Trump then turned to his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.

“I want to be the first to congratulate our great, now I can say, vice president-elect of the United States,” he said.

Vance took to the podium, thanking Trump for trusting him.

“I think that we just witnessed the greatest political comeback in the history of the United States of America,” Vance said to roaring cheers. “And under President Trump’s leadership, we’re never going to stop fighting for you, for your dreams, for the future of your children.”

And after the greatest political comeback in American history, Vance said, “We’re going to leave the greatest economic comeback in American history under Donald Trump’s leadership.”

“I took a little heat at the beginning,” Trump said in relation to Vance. “I knew the brain was a good one, about as good as it gets.”

Further, Trump thanked Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla and SpaceX, and described watching a SpaceX rocket launch.

“We’ve built the biggest, the broadest, the most unified coalition. They’ve never seen anything like it in all of American history,” Trump said. “They’ve never seen young and old men and women, rural and urban. And we had them all helping us tonight.”

The president-elect said his victory was also a massive victory for democracy and freedom.

“Together, we’re going to unlock America’s glorious destiny. We’re going to achieve the most incredible future for our people,” he said.

Trump said the task before him will not be easy, but he will bring every ounce of energy, spirit, and fight that he has in his soul to the job that he’s been entrusted with.

“This is a great job. There’s no job like this. This is the most important job in the world... I will govern by a simple motto: Promises made, promises kept. We’re going to keep our promises,” he said.

“Success is going to bring us together, and we are going to start by all putting America first. We have to put our country first for at least a period of time. We have to fix it because together, we can make America great again for all Americans,” the president-elect said. “I will not let you down, America. This future will be bigger, better, bolder, richer, safer, and stronger than it has ever been before.”

Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.