Trump is first criminal defendant elected president: Here’s what happens to his criminal and civil cases
President-elect Donald Trump has been reelected to the White House as a convicted felon who is awaiting sentencing in his hush money case in New York and still working to stave off prosecution in other state and federal cases.
It’s an extraordinarily unique position for him to be in: Never before has a criminal defendant been elected to the nation’s highest office, just as an ex-president had never been criminally charged until last year.
In the meantime, a judge in New York is set to sentence the former president later this month after holding off on handing down the punishment ahead of Election Day to avoid any appearance of affecting the outcome of the presidential race – though Trump’s lawyers are expected to ask the judge to put off the sentencing now that he’s the president-elect.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Read more about the four criminal cases here.
A look at Trump’s path to his projected second presidency
President-elect Donald Trump will be America’s 47th president, CNN projected Wednesday, after mounting the most momentous comeback in political history that will hand him massive, disruptive power at home and will send shockwaves around the world.
Four years after leaving Washington as a pariah, following his attempt to overturn the 2020 election to stay in office, Trump’s victory defied two assassination attempts, two presidential impeachments, his criminal conviction and many other criminal charges.
The former president outpaced his own performance in a losing cause four years ago, putting the states of Georgia and Pennsylvania back into the GOP column and retaining North Carolina for his party – all of which Democrats had targeted as part of the vice president’s path to the White House.
Trump campaigned on searing authoritarian-style rhetoric and false claims that the nation’s towns and cities were under “occupation” from foreign criminals and gangs. But he also tapped into a palpable thirst for change among Americans still feeling the painful aftereffects of a now cooled run of high inflation. And he warned that only he could stop a slide to World War III as foreign crises rage.
Given the extreme nature of his campaign, his election may also augur a period of national and international turmoil. Trump has vowed to use his second term to seek “retribution” against his political adversaries and mused aloud about using the military against “the enemy from within.” Overseas, US allies are bracing for the return of the wild unpredictability in US foreign policy that Trump whipped up in his first term. There are also concerns about his willingness to enforce NATO’s bedrock principle of mutual defense.
Trump’s return to power is also certain to end the federal prosecutions that resulted from his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Read more about what to expect from a Trump presidency here.
CNN Projection: Harris wins New Hampshire
Vice President Kamala Harris will win New Hampshire, CNN projects.
There are four electoral votes at stake in New Hampshire. It takes at least 270 electoral votes to win the 2024 presidential election.
Who won in 2020: President Joe Biden carried the state and won the general election.
CNN Projection: Trump will defeat Harris in a historic political comeback
Former President Donald Trump will defeat Vice President Kamala Harris in a historic political comeback, recapturing the White House following an election loss in 2020, CNN projects.
Trump will return to the nation’s highest office four years after inciting a violent insurrection at the US Capitol as part of an effort to hold on to power as he refused to accept the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to President Joe Biden.
Trump’s election presents an unprecedented legal situation as the president-elect was scheduled to be sentenced in New York criminal court this month after being convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records earlier this year. Trump also faces other criminal charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith in his ongoing federal election subversion case. The former president made the multiple criminal charges against him a focal point in his 2024 campaign as he argued he was being unjustly targeted and vowed to seek “retribution.”
Trump, 78, will also become the second former president in history to win back the White House after losing a reelection bid while in office — Grover Cleveland was the first. Trump is now the same age that Biden was when Biden became the oldest president in US history to be inaugurated.
The former president’s election comes months after surviving two assassination attempts against him. Since his first successful White House bid in 2016, Trump has reshaped the GOP in his image and holds an iron grip over a party that once appeared ready to move on from him after the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021.
CNN Projection: Trump wins Wisconsin
Former President Donald Trump will win the key battleground state of Wisconsin, CNN projects.
There are 10 electoral votes at stake in Wisconsin. It takes at least 270 electoral votes to win the 2024 presidential election.
Who won in 2020: President Joe Biden flipped Wisconsin back to blue by less than a point after Trump narrowly won the state in 2016. Trump’s win broke the streak for Democratic presidential candidates – they had won the previous seven elections.
Trump’s campaign celebrates another victory: GOP control of the Senate
As Trump’s campaign celebrates an almost certain win and begins contemplating the makeup of a future administration, they are also pointing to another overnight victory: Republicans taking back control of the Senate.
Those close to the former president told CNN that Trump’s likely victory is even more solidified with GOP control over Congress’ upper chamber, acknowledging at this early stage that the makeup of the Senate will allow a smoother pathway to confirming a future Cabinet and greenlighting his agenda.
The former president used similar rhetoric while taking a victory lap at his election party early Wednesday morning.
“America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate. We have taken back control of the Senate – wow that’s good,” he told his supporters.
Keep in mind: While CNN has projected that Republicans will win control of the Senate, it is still unclear which party will hold the majority in the House.
Putin has no plans to congratulate Trump, a Kremlin spokesperson says
Russian President Vladimir Putin has no plans to congratulate Donald Trump, the Kremlin spokesperson said, adding, “Let’s not forget that we are talking about an unfriendly country that is both directly and indirectly involved in the war against our state.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia is carefully monitoring information on the US election and is unlikely to give an official assessment until it sees “concrete words and actions.”
Peskov highlighted “significant statements” from Trump, including what the Kremlin referred to as “his desire to end the ongoing policies of extending old wars and starting new ones.”
“As he prepares to enter, or when has already entered the Oval Office, we recognize that sometimes statements take on a different tone. Therefore, we are carefully analyzing everything, observing, and will draw conclusions based on specific words and actions,” Peskov said.
“We have repeatedly said that the US is in a position to help bring an end to the conflict. Of course, this cannot be achieved overnight.”
When asked if Trump might be offended by Putin’s lack of congratulations, the Kremlin spokesman added: “It’s practically impossible for relations to worsen any further. Relations are currently at their lowest historical point.”
Separately, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev, congratulated Trump on Wednesday morning as he edged closer to victory, saying it opens “new opportunities” for resetting relations with Russia.
“Despite a large-scale disinformation campaign directed against them, Trump and his team demonstrated unique strength and resilience, winning the presidency,” said Dmitriev, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, in a statement to CNN on Wednesday.
CNN’s Matthew Chance contributed reporting.
Iran says “no significant difference in who becomes president in America,” state media reports
The Iranian government said there is “no significant difference” in who becomes president in the US, state media reported, with ex-President Donald Trump on the brink of reclaiming the White House.
According to Tasnim News, the state media agency in Iran associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, “The spokesperson for the Iranian government, Fatemeh Mohajerani, confirmed that the general policies of Iran and the United States are consistent.”
Mohajerani added that “necessary measures have been planned in advance,” according to Tasnim.
Mohajerani also said the election of the United States president has “no connection” to Iran and that the “general policies of the US and Iran are unchanged,” Tasnim reports.
European markets gain as Trump poised to win
European markets opened higher Wednesday, tracking Tuesday’s gains on Wall Street, as Donald Trump looked likely to win the US presidency. The Stoxx Europe 600 index, the benchmark for the region, was up 1.3%. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC rose 0.9% and 1.3%, paring earlier gains, while London’s FTSE 100 was trading 1.1% higher on the day.
Mark Haefele, a chief investment officer at Swiss investment bank UBS, said Wednesday that the potential for Trump to introduce tariffs on imports is “a concern” for European companies.
Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at financial services firm Hargreaves Lansdown, also noted Wednesday that while “Trump’s more renegade approach to trade is likely to push the US further away from global institutions and the rules-based order built up over many decades… expectations are high that a Trump presidency will mean fewer regulations on big tech and big finance.”
Ukraine’s Zelensky congratulates Trump and praises his commitment to “peace through strength”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated former President Donald Trump on Wednesday and said he appreciates his commitment to “peace through strength,” as he appears poised to clinch victory in the US presidential election.
CNN has not yet called the race for Trump and votes are still being counted across several states.
Zelensky said in a social media post, “I recall our great meeting with President Trump back in September, when we discussed in detail the Ukraine-U.S. strategic partnership, the Victory Plan, and ways to put an end to Russian aggression against Ukraine.”
“We look forward to an era of a strong United States of America under President Trump’s decisive leadership. We rely on continued strong bipartisan support for Ukraine in the United States,” he added. “We are interested in developing mutually beneficial political and economic cooperation that will benefit both of our nations.”
During his campaign, Trump suggested he will end support for Kyiv’s war effort and claimed he could settle the war “in one day.” Terms of a peace plan floated by his vice presidential nominee JD Vance included conditions Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for, such as Russia retaining land they have occupied and Ukraine giving a “guarantee of neutrality.”
CNN Projection: Harris wins New Jersey
Vice President Kamala Harris will win New Jersey, CNN projects.
There are 14 electoral votes at stake in New Jersey. It takes at least 270 electoral votes to win the 2024 presidential election.
Who won in 2020: President Joe Biden carried the state and won the general election.
American voting patterns have changed a lot over the past 8 years. Here’s how.
President Donald Trump is projected to win multiple key battleground states and is poised to clinch the presidency for a second time. There are some key takeaways in how the country’s politics have shifted over three straight elections with Trump on the ballot.
CNN’s exit poll results from 2016, 2020 and 2024 reveal how a sour economy was a drag on Vice President Kamala Harris, how she failed to drive an uptick in support among women even though there was an uptick in support for abortion rights, and how Latino men, in particular, gravitated toward Trump.
Here are just a few differences over the years:
- Women and men: Harris’ edge among women this year did not exceed either President Joe Biden’s or former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s, a troubling sign for the vice president given that she tried to mobilize female voters on the issue of abortion. Trump maintained an edge among men.
- Latino men embraced Trump: Latino voters, and men in particular, have been moving toward Trump since 2016. This year, Latino men broke in his direction for the first time. Biden won their support by 23 points in 2020 and Trump won them in 2024. Latina women still favored Harris, but by smaller margins than they supported either Clinton or Biden. Harris maintained strong leads among Black men and women. Trump’s lead among White men shrank.
- Educational divide grows: White voters without college degrees have long represented Trump’s base of support, something that has remained constant. A shift has occurred among White college-educated voters. They narrowly backed Trump in 2016, but Harris won them by about 10 points in 2024, a split driven by both men and women. Harris won White women with a college degree by about 20 points — an improvement over both Biden and Clinton. Meanwhile, Harris lost some support among voters of color of all education levels.
To see how the differences have grown in graphs, read our story here.
CNN Projection: Harris wins Minnesota
Vice President Kamala Harris will win Minnesota, CNN projects.
There are 10 electoral votes at stake in Minnesota. It takes at least 270 electoral votes to win the 2024 presidential election.
Who won in 2020: President Joe Biden carried the state and won the general election.
It’s Wednesday morning in America and Trump is on the brink of victory. Here’s where things stand
Former President Donald Trump has gained 266 electoral votes — just four away from the 270 he needs to be elected 47th President of the United States.
Here’s what happened overnight:
Trump’s speech in Florida: The former president addressed supporters in Florida in the early hours of Wednesday morning and thanked the American people for their support. “We have a country that needs help and it needs help very badly. We’re going to fix our borders and we’re going to fix everything about our country,” Trump said, promising Americans that “every single day I will be fighting for you” and said he would usher in the “golden age of America.” CNN has not yet called the presidential race and votes are still being counted in several states.
Republicans will control the Senate: Republicans will win the US Senate majority, CNN projects, shifting the balance of power in Washington. The Republican march to control started early on election night when West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice was projected to pick up the Senate seat vacated by retiring Democrat-turned–independent Sen. Joe Manchin. In Ohio, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who has served in the chamber for three terms, will lose his reelection bid, CNN projects, in a state that has gone from a perennial political bellwether during his tenure to a deep red stronghold. The new Republican senator will be businessman Bernie Moreno, a vehement Trump supporter.
Battleground projections: Early on Tuesday evening, Trump swept reliable red states and Vice President Kamala Harris picked up blue strongholds. Later on, Trump picked up North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania, and Harris’ path to 270 shrank considerably.
Harris will speak later today: The campaign’s co-chair Cedric Richmond told supporters the vice president wasn’t going to speak Tuesday evening, but is expected to speak today. In brief remarks to the hundreds of supporters who remained on Howard University’s campus, Richmond said there were still “votes to count” and the campaign was committed to making sure “every vote is counted.”
Asia markets gain on prospects of a Trump presidency
Asian markets are broadly higher during mid-afternoon trade, tracking gains on Wall Street, as Trump edged ever closer to the presidency.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 2.6% higher, while Australia’s S&P ASX gained 0.8%.
Some background: Last month, Japanese voters delivered a stinging rebuke to their country’s longtime ruling party, led by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed almost continuously since 1955, lost its parliamentary majority in the powerful lower house for the first time in 15 years.
On Wednesday, Chinese shares bucked the regional trend. The Shanghai Composite Index was in negative territory, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was trading 2.7% lower.
US stocks rallied in after-hours trading on Tuesday night and bitcoin hit a new record as Wall Street digested early presidential election results.
Sources from: CNN.COM