Republican Donald Trump will be the next US president – after an historic victory that will send him back to the White House.
The race with Democrat Kamala Harris had been thought to be on a knife edge, but overnight results showed Trump had secured enough votes to win.
He will be the first former president to return to office in more than 130 years, and – at 78 – the oldest man ever elected to the role.
When will the election results be confirmed?
Trump has already been congratulated by world leaders including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the UK’s Keir Starmer, but the official presidential election results are not yet confirmed.
There had been fears that extremely close races in some of the key battleground “swing” states might have left the results uncertain.
But earlier-than-expected wins in North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, coupled with victories in solidly Republican states, meant he reached the magic 270 electoral votes needed to secure the presidency.
CBS, the BBC’s broadcasting partner in the US, projected Donald Trump as the overall winner just after 05:30 EST (10:30 GMT) the day after the election.
However, it could still take days or even weeks for the detailed election results to be confirmed officially in every state.
Is Donald Trump now president?
No. Trump becomes the president-elect, and his running mate JD Vance becomes the vice-president elect.
Trump will be sworn in at the presidential inauguration on Monday, 20 January 2025, at which point he will legally assume the power and responsibilities of the presidency.
What happens between election day and the inauguration?
Once every valid vote has been included in the final results, a process known as the electoral college confirms the election result.
In each state a varying number of electoral college votes are up for grabs. It is securing these – and not just the backing of voters themselves – that ultimately wins the presidency.
Generally, states award all of their electoral college votes to whoever wins the popular vote, and this is confirmed after meetings on 17 December.
The new US Congress then meets on 6 January to count the electoral college votes and confirm the new president.
It was this meeting of Congress, to certify the election results, that Trump’s supporters tried to stop, when they marched on the US Capitol in 2021 after Trump refused to concede defeat to Joe Biden.
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What do the president-elect and vice-president-elect do now?
President-elect Trump and vice-president-elect JD Vance will work with their transition team to organise the handover from President Biden’s administration.
They will identify their policy priorities, start vetting the candidates who will take up key roles in the new administration, and prepare to take over the functions of government.
Trump and his team will also begin receiving classified national security briefings covering current threats and ongoing military operations.
The president-elect and vice-president-elect also receive mandatory protection from the US Secret Service.
The outgoing president usually invites the incoming president to the White House in the days after the election.
They also typically attend the inauguration to symbolise the peaceful transfer of power, although Trump chose to boycott the ceremony in 2020.
He did however follow the tradition begun by Ronald Reagan of leaving a handwritten note in the Oval Office for his successor to read.
At the time, President Biden told reporters that his predecessor had left “a very generous letter”.
After the inauguration, the new president begins work immediately.
