Political polls leading up to this week’s U.S. presidential election showed a tight race between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. But Trump pulled off a resounding win across several demographic groups. VOA’s Dora Mekouar looks at how he won. …
Leave a commentwashington — President-elect Donald Trump has named Susie Wiles, the de facto manager of his victorious campaign, as his White House chief of staff, the first woman to hold the influential role. Wiles is widely credited within and outside Trump’s inner circle for running what was, by far, his most disciplined and well-executed campaign, and was seen as the leading contender for the position. She largely avoided the spotlight, even refusing to take the mic to speak as Trump celebrated his victory early Wednesday morning. She resisted the formal title of campaign manager, avoiding becoming a target, given Trump’s history ofmore
Leave a commentPresident Joe Biden on Thursday urged Americans to accept the results of Tuesday’s presidential election, which former President Donald Trump won. VOA White House Correspondent Anita Powell reports. …
Leave a commentAllies in Europe are debating what Donald Trump’s win in the U.S. presidential election could mean for their security and economy. Trump’s first term in office was characterized by often turbulent relations with EU and NATO partners. As Henry Ridgwell reports, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has amplified Europe’s concerns over the transatlantic alliance. …
Leave a commentReactions in Africa to Donald Trump’s return to the White House are mixed. Some are excited and eager to see what comes next, while others remember the former president’s first term and don’t expect much from a new Trump administration regarding Africa. VOA Nairobi Bureau Chief Mariama Diallo has this report. Contributor: Juma Majanga; Camera: Amos Wangwa …
Leave a commentTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is sometimes at odds with Western leaders but has made no secret of what he says were his warm dealings with President-elect Donald Trump during the U.S. leader’s first term. Observers say he is now looking to those warm ties as an opportunity to end regional conflicts, but also to ask for greater U.S. cooperation against Kurdish separatists, as Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul. …
Leave a commentWashington — Donald Trump ‘s impending return to the White House means he’ll want to stand up an entirely new administration from the one that served under President Joe Biden. His team is also pledging that the second won’t look much like the first one Trump established after his 2016 victory. The president-elect now has a 75-day transition period to build out his team before Inauguration Day arrives on Jan. 20. One top item on the to-do list: filling around 4,000 government positions with political appointees, people who are specifically tapped for their jobs by Trump’s team. That includes everyone frommore
Leave a commentU.S. President-elect Donald Trump is moving quickly to consider appointments to key positions in his new White House administration and could name some choices within days. Trump, fresh off his decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in Tuesday’s presidential election, has been huddling with aides at his oceanside Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida to mull over his options. Even before the election, transition chiefs Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon met with some potential candidates for top-notch jobs, either in the White House or to head the government’s Cabinet-level departments and an array of other agencies. Trump aides also have preparedmore
Leave a commentIn a historic shift, Muslim and Arab Americans broke with two decades of Democratic loyalty, splitting most of their votes between President-elect Donald Trump and third-party candidates in Tuesday’s presidential election The exodus, fueled by anger over the Biden administration’s handling of the war in Gaza, helped Trump win key battleground states as he defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the race for the White House. Less than half of the Muslim voters who voted backed Harris, according to an exit poll of more than 1,000 voters by the Council on American Islamic Relations. Most voted for either a third-partymore
Leave a commentU.S. allies in Asia are congratulating Donald Trump on his decisive victory in Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election, but many in Asia also worry about what the return of his “America First” foreign policy means for their countries, as VOA’s Bill Gallo reports from Seoul, South Korea. …
Leave a commentTaipei, Taiwan — Leaders from China and Taiwan have congratulated Donald Trump’s national election victory, despite growing uncertainty about how his second presidential term might impact dynamics across the Taiwan Strait. Chinese President Xi Jinping urged China and the United States to find the right way to get along in the new era, to benefit ‘’both countries and the wider world.” He hopes the two sides will “uphold the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, strengthen dialogue and communication, properly manage differences and expand mutually beneficial cooperation,” according to a readout released by China’s official Xinhua News Agencymore
Leave a commentTaipei, Taiwan — Following U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s sweeping victory, Chinese netizens said they expect the U.S. to increase trade tensions with China while analysts say Washington’s efforts to counter China’s expansion might weaken under a second Trump administration. Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump has vowed to impose tariffs, between 60% to 200%, on Chinese products on several occasions. During an interview with Fox News on February 4, Trump said he would impose more than 60% tariffs on Chinese imports but emphasized he wasn’t going to start a trade war with China. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trumpmore
Leave a commentThe United States is gearing up for a transfer of power, with President Joe Biden congratulating President-elect Donald Trump on his victory and Vice President Kamala Harris conceding defeat. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports from Washington. Camera: Adam Greenbaum. …
Leave a commentBoth Israelis and Palestinians on Wednesday welcomed Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential election victory. Israelis hope he will support them in their conflicts with Hamas and others; Palestinians hope he will offer new statehood ideas. Linda Gradstein reports from Jerusalem. Camera: Ricki Rosen. …
Leave a commentFormer President Donald Trump will return to the White House, as is the will of the American people. The news has been received with a mix of cheers and tears in a deeply divided country. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports from Washington. Camera: Afshean Hessam, Veronica Balderas Iglesias. …
Leave a commentUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was among the first world leaders to congratulate newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump. On the streets of Ukraine’s capital, many Ukrainians say they fear that Trump may fulfill a campaign promise to end the war by forcing them into a settlement that will favor Moscow. For VOA, Anna Chernikova reports from Kyiv. …
Leave a commentLondon — U.S. allies in Europe have congratulated President-elect Donald Trump following his comprehensive victory in Tuesday’s presidential election, despite deep concerns across the continent over what his second term may mean for transatlantic relations. In Britain, the so-called “special relationship” with America has long been treasured. However, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer got off to a difficult start with the Trump team last month after officials in his Labour Party offered election advice to his rival, Kamala Harris, on the campaign trail. Nevertheless, Starmer was among the first of the world leaders to congratulate Trump in the early hours ofmore
Leave a commentRepublicans won control of the U.S. Senate early Wednesday, a major victory that will give President-elect Donald Trump a key tool for enacting his legislative agenda. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports from Washington. …
Leave a commentFrance is looking at a second Trump presidency with a mix of trepidation, stoicism and — in some cases— joy. Even as President Emmanuel Macron rushed to congratulate Donald Trump for his win, French businesses worry about threatened tariffs and critics fear a similar tilt to the right could usher France’s far-right National Rally party to power. Lisa Bryant reports on the fallout from Paris. …
Leave a commentWASHINGTON — Special counsel Jack Smith is evaluating how to wind down the two U.S. federal cases against Donald Trump before he takes office in light of longstanding Justice Department policy that says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday. Smith charged Trump last year with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. But Trump’s election defeat of Kamala Harris means that the Justice Department believes he can no longer face prosecution in accordance with decades-old department legal opinions meant to shield presidentsmore
Leave a commentJohannesburg — Donald Trump’s victory over Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris dominated the news cycle across Africa on Wednesday, with coverage reflecting the anxiety being felt by some on the continent. In South Africa, the newspaper Business Day ran an opinion column headlined “Trump’s comeback heralds harder U.S. approach to Africa,” while another local newspaper, The Sunday Times, was running a poll for readers asking: “Are you worried about Donald Trump being elected U.S. president?” A cartoon by renowned South African political cartoonist Zapiro in the Daily Maverick newspaper depicted a frightened looking globe watching TV as U.S. election resultsmore
Leave a commentnairobi, kenya — In a vibrant Nairobi community center, American citizens living in Kenya gathered with palpable excitement early Wednesday to watch the U.S. election results unfold. The atmosphere buzzed with anticipation as expatriates shared snacks and stories, their eyes glued to screens displaying real-time updates. As the results of the U.S elections trickled in, a mix of American citizens and local Kenyan friends anxiously monitored the results. Robyn Emerson, an American expatriate in Nairobi and chairperson of Democrats Abroad Kenya, which organized the event, said all American citizens were invited to the event, regardless of the party they support. “Americanmore
Leave a commentAround the nation and around the globe, people responded as former U.S. President Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris to earn a new four-year term as the country’s leader. …
Leave a commentThe FBI said more than 50 election sites across five battleground states received hoax bomb emails on Election Day in the U.S., and the emails in four of these states came from a Russian domain. None of the threats sent to polling sites in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Arizona were deemed credible, and while causing a brief disruption, they did not affect the voting, the FBI said. “We identified the source, and it was from Russia,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a news conference, adding that the Russians “don’t want us to have free, fair andmore
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