Republican Donald Trump today claimed victory in the 2024 US presidential election, after several US media houses predicted he had defeated his Democratic rival Kamala Harris.

Speaking to a raucous crowd of supporters at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in Florida, Trump said: “America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate.” He also praised his running mate JD Vance and his 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,” he said.

Both were present on stage, along with Trump’s wife Melania Trump.

He’s a “feisty guy,” Trump said, praising 40-year-old JD Vance.

Vadluru, a quiet village in Andhra Pradesh, is the ancestral home of Usha Vance, who will become America’s Second Lady – and the first who is not white – if Trump is re-elected. She met Vance at Yale Law School and the couple married in 2014 and had 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. “It is a political victory the likes of which our country has never seen before.”

In his “victory speech” he also thanked Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk, who has poured his millions into backing the Republican presidential candidate since endorsing him in July.

“We have a new star, a star is born: Elon,” Trump said. “He’s a great guy.”

Trump had previously promised to make the United States the “bitcoin and cryptocurrency capital of the world” and put Musk in charge of a comprehensive audit of government waste.

Donald ‘Trump’s’ Kamala Harris

Donald Trump is currently expected to win 267 electoral college votes, three short of the magic number of 270. His opponent and incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris is trailing at 214.

A major factor behind Trump’s victory was the Republican victory in seven swing states. From a 6-1 score in favor of the Democrats in the 2020 polls, when Trump lost to Joe Biden, these seven states went to a 7-0 lead for the Republicans this year.

Trump has already won three swing states – Georgia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina – and leads in Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan and Nevada.

If American voters elect Trump, the only president to be impeached twice and the first former president to be criminally convicted, he would become the first president to win non-consecutive terms in more than a century.