As The Associated Press called the all-important swing state of Pennsylvania, putting Donald Trump on the verge of a historic comeback win, the former president took the stage at his election night party to declare victory in the 2024 presidential election.
(The AP has not yet called the race, though Trump is on the precipice of clinching the Electoral College.)
“Look at what happened! Isn’t this crazy?” Trump, joined on stage by his family, running mate JD Vance and other key allies and advocates, asked the crowd of jovial supporters at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in his adopted home state of Florida.
Trump called his campaign, and the wider MAGA — Make America Great Again — faction, “the greatest political movement of all time.”
“There’s never been anything like this in this country, and maybe beyond,” Trump said. “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,” he added. “We’re going to fix our borders. We’re going to fix everything about our country. We made history for a reason tonight, and the reason is going to be just that.”
Trump had thanks to spare for the figures on stage, expressing gratitude for members of his family, his campaign team, surrogates like UFC CEO Dana White and Tesla CEO Elon Musk — “A star is born,” Trump said of the billionaire — and the American people.
“To every citizen, I will fight for you, for your family and your future,” he said. “Every single day I will be fighting for you with every breath in my body. I will not rest until we have delivered the strong, safe and prosperous America that our children deserve and that you deserve. This will truly be the golden age of America. That’s what we have to have. This is a magnificent victory for the American people that will allow us to make America great again.”
On the subject of Musk, Trump went on a lengthy soliloquy about the tech magnate, specifically waxing poetic about the technology of SpaceX, the spacecraft manufacturer he owns. He also praised Musk for sharing his Starlink satellite technology with North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
“It saved a lot of lives. He saved a lot of lives,” Trump said of Musk. “But he’s a character. He’s a special guy. He’s a super genius. We have to protect our geniuses. We don’t have that many of them. We have to protect our super geniuses.”
The AP also projected that Republicans will control the U.S. Senate, wresting the chamber from Democratic control, giving Trump, if elected, extra support to enact his agenda through Congress. Citing those GOP victories in the U.S. Senate — with the House of Representatives is still up in the air — Trump said that the country has given him “an unprecedented and powerful mandate.”
Trump briefly ceded the stage to Vance, who declared that “we just witnessed the greatest political comeback in the history of the United States of America.”
“Under President Trump’s leadership, we’re never going to stop fighting for you, for your dreams, for the future of your children,” the Ohio senator said. “And after the greatest political comeback in American history, we’re going to leave the greatest economic comeback in American history under Donald Trump’s leadership.”
“He’s turned out to be a good choice,” Trump quipped, before referencing some of the attacks from Democrats on some of Vance’s previous comments. “I took a little heat at the But he was … I knew the brain was a good one, about as good as it gets.”
The former president took time to mention another surrogate — former Democrat-turned-independent-turned-Trump supporter Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. The two unlikely allies found common ground on some issues, and Trump is reportedly considering Kennedy for a role related to health and food safety in his future administration.
“He wants to do some things, and we’re going to let him go to it. I just said, but Bobby, leave the oil to me,” Trump said of Kennedy, who spent decades as an environmental lawyer. “We have more liquid gold, oil and gas. We have more liquid gold than any country in the world, more than Saudi Arabia. We have more than Russia. Bobby, stay away from the liquid gold. Other than that, go have a good time, Bobby.”
Trump vowed to govern with a “simple motto,” one that dates back to his first term: “Promises made, promises kept.”
He urged all Americans to “unite” behind his presidency and called to heal divisions — a curious proposition from a candidate who espoused personal grievances and made vows of revenge against his political foes on the campaign trail.
“Nothing will stop me from keeping my word to you, the people,” he said. “We will make America safe, strong, prosperous, powerful, and free again. And I’m asking every citizen all across our land to join me in this noble and righteous endeavor. That’s what it is.”
“It’s time to put the divisions of the past four years behind us,” Trump added. “It’s time to unite. And we’re going to try. We’re going to try. We have to try. And it’s going to happen. Success will bring us together.”
Trump walked offstage to a song that became one of his campaign anthems: “YMCA,” by the Village People.