Early on November 6, the results of the 2024 presidential election were declared. Donald Trump won the election, defeating current Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. This was a comeback for a former president who lost the last election.
Despite having the polls be very close, the Republican party passed the Democratic party by 86 electoral votes. Trump defeated Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the election with a sweep of several key swing states, and he won the popular vote. After winning Pennsylvania, Trump reached the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
Although they are rivals, Harris called the new president to congratulate him on his victory Wednesday afternoon. President Joe Biden also contacted Trump to invite him to a meeting and to ensure his commitment to a new beginning once again. Trump stated to fans in West Palm Beach, alongside his family and his vice president, JD Vance: “This is a magnificent victory for the American people that will allow us to make America great again.”
Before returning to office, he will become the oldest president elected, at 78, and the second former president to return to office. This hasn’t been seen in over 130 years. The date of Trump’s inauguration is January 20, 2025. His inauguration will take place in Washington D.C. On that day, J.D. Vance will also become the vice president.
Starting all over, Vance and Trump will have to deal with challenging topics like immigration and international wars. Throughout the presidential campaign, Americans have also shown concerns regarding the high price of certain items and the increasing cost of home ownership. The U.S. stock market, banks, bitcoin, and even Elon Musk’s Tesla stock all dramatically grew higher on Wednesday. Trump has promised to start making changes in the federal system.
The economy is another major thing President-Elect Trump is looking to fix during his time in office. Senior Sam Kearstan explains, “ I expect the price of things to go down and the economy to start getting better.” During Trump’s time in office, he wants to extend his 2017 cut which helped lower taxes on 80% of taxpayers. This will be a major step forward and help many individuals based on their income and much more. Another thing he is looking to do is remove taxes on tips. This would help with people who have lower income and they go out to eat. It would benefit them and help them save a little bit more money in their account. Workers who only get paid by tips would be the only ones to see a change.
Social media played a major role when it comes to this election. Many content creators have pushed others to vote via social media. Senior Sophia Sulpizi shares, “Many people on social media are informing you about different things and people are influencing you and getting in your head to vote for a certain person”. Popular social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok are pushing teens to vote for a certain candidate based on who the “influencer” tells them to vote for. Social media tells people they have to do certain things and even say certain things to fit in. This was shown during the election when creators would go online and tell nothing but lies about the candidate they don’t like to influence young adults and even teens that they should vote for the person the influencer wants to win. Sometimes this can cause people to feel peer pressured into voting for a specific person based on their real opinions and thoughts about that individual.
