Former president Donald Trump prematurely declared victory in the 2024 presidential race, telling supporters in an overnight speech that he had won the election while votes were still being counted and several states had not not yet called into the historically tight race for the 2024 presidential election. White House.

Trump will likely be determined the winner by the Associated Press and other media outlets within hours, but he nonetheless announced his victory before an independent news organization announced him as the winner.

The AP called Pennsylvania for Trump, a victory in this crucial battleground state that puts the former president four electoral votes away from Harris’ official defeat. An extremely likely victory for the former president in Alaska or one of the key battleground states – Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona or Nevada – would send him back to the Oval Office.

Around 2:30 a.m. ET, Trump walked to a podium set up on a stage at his Mar-a-Lago estate in West Palm Beach, Florida and was immediately flanked by his wife, Melania Trump, five children and their partners, his running mate, JD Vance and his wife, as well as several other campaign staff and supporters.

“I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected your 47th president – ​​and your 45th president,” Trump said. “I will fight for you, for your family and your future. Every day I will fight for you with every breath in my body. I will not rest until we create the strong, secure, and prosperous America that our children deserve and that you deserve. This will truly be the golden age. It’s magnificent.

Several states had still not been called for elections, including Wisconsin, Michigan and Arizona. It was when he was supposed to have won Pennsylvania that the former president appeared to have decided to take the stage and declare himself the winner.

Earlier this week, Trump told reporters that he would like to declare victory on Election Day, even though it is widely believed that it may take several days for the race to be called as votes are counted in what polls show is an incredibly close race. . This is the second consecutive presidential race where Trump has declared himself the winner ahead of any projected calls from a network or major media outlet. As the elections unfold and the votes come in, officials are putting off voting data to some major media outlets, where in-house experts analyze polls, early voting and other election-related information to such an extent that a winner can easily be declared.

In 2020, Trump set the stage for his false claim and announced he had won overnight after Election Day, only to see votes pour in for Joe Biden over the following days. The former vice president was finally declared the winner of the 2020 election on Saturday, four days after Election Day. Trump, however, never accepted the fact that he lost the 2020 election and, to this day, rallies support using the false idea that the presidential election lacked integrity and that he seen stealing his rightful place in the White House.

At a rally on Sunday, Trump escalated this type of rhetoric, telling his supporters that the election had already been stolen and falsely claiming that states had added 12 days of voting and that voters at state polling places from the battlefield were turned away, along with various other stories of voter disenfranchisement. He also said he “shouldn’t have left” the White House after Biden’s victory.
In a phone call last week with reporters, a Harris campaign official said they “fully expected” Trump to falsely claim victory Tuesday night and were prepared for a plan to attack to flood television, radio and social media with calls for calm. the vote is counted and verifiable information is collected in opposition to Trump’s false narrative of a presidential victory.

The court of public opinion is on the front line in this kind of situation, and certainly the most important arena in the event of a premature declaration of victory. While one side can spin a false narrative, the other can always fight back publicly with cold, hard facts. On Monday, an anonymous Harris campaign official told Reuters that he is willing to “go on television, reveal the truth, and tap into a vast network of people who can use their influence to fight back.” This exploitation of his vast network is certainly in line with the star power the campaign has mobilized in recent weeks to get out the vote. Lady Gaga, Beyoncé and Oprah Winfrey, among others, appeared on stage with the vice president to show their support, and Black male celebrities argued in favor of Harris’ plan to prop up that voting bloc, which polls have shown is slipping away this year.