JD Vance and his wife Usha stand on stage during Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s rally, in West Palm Beach, Florida, US, November 6, 2024. (Reuters)

Donald Trump declared victory in the 2024 US presidential election on Wednesday, after projections from various US media showed his victory over Democratic opponent Kamala Harris.
Addressing his supporters at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in Florida, Trump said: “America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate.” He recognized his running mate JD Vance and praised Vance’s Indian-American wife Usha Chilukuri Vance.
“I want to be the first to say congratulations – now I can say Vice President-elect JD Vance. And his remarkable and beautiful wife, Usha Vance,” Trump said.
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The meeting was attended by Trump’s wife Melania Trump, alongside JD and Usha Vance on stage.
Trump described 40-year-old JD Vance as a “feisty guy” in his remarks. “And he’s a feisty guy, isn’t he? I said (to him), ‘Go into the enemy camp’. And you know the enemy camp is made up of certain networks. He’ll say, ‘Okay, thanks. He’s really looking out, and then he’s just going to destroy them.
Usha Vance, who is set to become the first non-white American second lady if Trump returns to office, is from Vadluru, a village in Andhra Pradesh. She met Vance while attending Yale Law School, and they married in 2014 and went on to have three children.
“We made history tonight for a reason, and the reason will be because we overcame obstacles that no one thought possible,” Trump said in his speech. “It is a political victory the likes of which our country has never seen before.”
During his ‘victory speech’, Trump also thanked Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, for his support of the Republican presidential candidate.