Donald Trump claimed victory and pledged to “heal” the country Wednesday as results put him on the verge of beating Kamala Harris in a stunning White House comeback.

His exuberant speech came despite the fact that only Fox News had declared him the winner, with no other US networks having made the call so far.

As jubilant supporters cheered and chanted “USA”, Trump took to the stage at his campaign headquarters in Florida along with his wife Melania and several of his children.

“We are going to help our country heal,” the Republican former president said.

“It’s a political victory that our country has never seen before.”

US networks have called the swing states of Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina for the 78-year-old, and he led the Democratic vice president in the others although they have not been called yet.

Gloom swiftly descended on Harris’s camp.

“You won’t hear from the vice president tonight but you will hear from her tomorrow,” Cedric Richmond, Harris campaign co-chair, told a watch party in Washington as supporters left.

In a further blow to Democrats, Trump’s Republican Party also seized control of the Senate, flipping two seats to overturn a narrow Democratic majority.

A Trump victory threatens to cause shockwaves around the world, as US allies in Europe and Asia fear a return of his nationalist policies and his praise of autocrats like Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

But the US dollar surged and bitcoin hit a record high while most equity markets advanced as traders bet on a victory for Trump as the results rolled in.

Mood shift

Polls for weeks had shown a knife-edge race between Harris and Trump, who would be the oldest ever president at the time of inauguration, the first felon president and only the second in history to serve non-consecutive terms.

Trump also faces sentencing in a criminal case over hush money payments on November 26, while the controversy over his denial of his 2020 election defeat by Joe Biden still persists.

But in the end victory came surprisingly quickly.

The mood shifted sharply at Harris’s watch party in Howard University — her former college and a historically Black university in Washington — as the results came in.

“I am scared,” said Charlyn Anderson. “I am anxious now. I am leaving, my legs can barely move.”

In contrast, the celebrations intensified at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and the watch party nearby.

Tech tycoon Elon Musk, who has backed Trump and stands to lead a government efficiency commission under him, posted a picture of himself with the Republican.

“Game, set and match,” Musk said on X, the social media network he owns along with the Tesla electric vehicle firm and the Space X company.

Millions of Americans had lined up throughout Election Day — and millions more voted early — in a race with momentous consequences for the United States and the world.

Donald Trump is now 24 electoral college votes away from winning the United States presidential election.

The Republican Party candidate has now amassed 246 electoral college votes, with Vice President Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party polling 210 electoral college votes at the time of reporting.

There are 538 votes in the electoral college and it takes 270 — a majority — to win the presidency.

Trump is now projected to win the battleground state of North Carolina and the swing state of Georgia, leaving Harris with a mountain to climb. There is currently no realistic pathway to a Harris victory.

A “hush” has descended on the Harris campaign headquarters, with various outlets reporting that the campaign would no longer be talking to the press until it is done and dusted.

The US presidential election has been a keenly contested one and was considered “neck-and-neck” and “too close to call” even before the first mail-in ballots were cast.

Immigration, border security and inflation were Trump’s strongest campaign points, while Harris campaigned on reproductive rights for women and building “an opportunity economy”.

Kemi Badenoch has been elected as the new leader of the UK’s Conservative Party.

The Nigerian-born Badenoch defeated Robert Jenrick in the month-long election, which was announced on Saturday.

She polled 53,806 votes against Jenrick’s 41,388 to succeed Rishi Sunak as Britain’s opposition leader.

With the victory, Badenoch becomes the first black person to become the leader of a major party in the UK.

She takes over a Conservative Party still reeling from the loss it suffered during the general election in July.

The 44-year-old served as shadow business and trade secretary since the Labour Party took over the Downing Street.

After her victory, Badenoch said the Tories led “standards slip,” adding that the party must “set of Conservative pledges that appeal to the British people” before the next election.

“We have to be honest – honest about the fact that we made mistakes, honest about the fact that we let standards slip. The time has come to tell the truth,” the new Tory leader said.

“The task that stands before us is tough but simple. Our first responsibility as His Majesty’s loyal opposition is to hold this Labour government to account.

“Our second is no less important. It is to prepare, over the course of the next few years, for government to ensure that by the time of the next election, we have not just a clear set of Conservative pledges that appeal to the British people, but a clear plan for how to implement them, a clear plan to change this country by changing the way that government works.”

Badenoch first showed interest in becoming the leader of the Conservative Party in 2022, but she was eliminated in the fourth round of voting.

Badenoch, who grew up in Nigeria, has a reputation within and outside the party for her outspoken stance against immigration. She has been vocal about support for colonialism.