Donald Trump has been elected the 47th president of the United States – an incredible comeback for the former president– who refused to accept defeat four years ago, accused of sparking an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, he was convicted of felony charges, and he also survived two assassination attempts.
With his win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 Electoral Votes that he needed to clinch the Presidency.
Locally, Cherokee County saw a large turnout at the polls, with Trump receiving more than 87-percent of the 13,000 ballots cast (Cherokee County results are posted below).
Trump made the statement: “We’ve been through so much together, and today you showed up in record numbers to deliver a victory – this all was something special, and we’re going to pay you back.” As President – he’s vowed to pursue an agenda centered on dramatically reshaping the federal government and “pursuing retribution” against his perceived enemies.
Trump will assume office on January 20th.
Trump is the first former U.S. President to return to power, since Grover Cleveland regained the White House in the 1892 election.
He has seized on frustrations over high prices and fears about crime, and also immigration. He also highlighted wars in the Middle East, and also Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to cast Democrats as presiding over and encouraging, a world in chaos.
A defining moment came back in July, when a gunman opened fire at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania and a bullet grazed Trump’s ear and killed one of his supporters. Weeks later a second assassination attempt was undertaken, after a Secret Service agent saw a barrel of a gun poking through the greenery while Trump was playing golf.
This time around, Trump says that he’ll surround himself with loyalists who will enact his agenda, no questions asked, and who will arrive with hundreds of draft executive orders, legislative proposals, and more, with in-depth policy papers in hand.
(www.AL.COM/By ZEKE MILLER, MICHELLE PRICE, WILL WEISSERT – and JILL COLVIN with the Associated Press/Associated Press writer Jill Colvin reported from Palm Beach, Florida)