US election latest: Trump storms to US election win; world leaders congratulate him; US embassy in London attacked

Planning is already under way for Donald Trump’s transition into power, our US partner network NBC News reports.

Billionaire Howard Lutnick, co-chair of the president-elect’s transition team, said Trump will be surrounding himself with people he trusts.

“He’s going to have the best athletes you’ve ever seen, the greatest business executives, politicians across the board,” Lutnick said.

“No one has ever seen an administration anything like this one. It will be the best of the best.”

He said he’s also called “the top 150 Republicans” for their recommendations, who are “giving the names of the best people they have”.

Trump has already referred to at least two appointments he may make.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, could soon take charge of a new Department of Government Efficiency.

Meanwhile, Trump has not ruled out giving Robert F Kennedy Jr – who is renowned for questioning the safety of water and vaccines – responsibility for health, stating he will “make America healthy again”.

Defeated Democrat candidate Kamala Harris is expected to call Donald Trump later to formally concede the election, according to two of her aides.

In the meanwhile, the vice president is working on her concession speech, which she is expected to deliver later this afternoon, our US partner network NBC News reports.

President Joe Biden is also planning on phoning Trump following his victory, and will speak publicly from the White House later, according to a White House official.

We will bring you those live right here and across Sky News, so do stay tuned.

US stocks markets have hit record highs after Donald Trump’s sweeping victory in the presidential election. 

Markets jumped more than 3% at the news – opening at 42,221.88 before hitting a record 43,514.85.

In Europe, initial rises have started to fade amid threats of high tariffs from the incoming Trump administration. 

Earlier this morning, Donald Trump gave a speech in which he claimed victory in this year’s election – a few hours before he was officially confirmed as winner. 

Here are the key moments from the Florida speech.

By Tom Clarke, science and technology editor

“The future is gonna be fantastic,” America’s unlikely kingmaker posted on X, above a photograph of his Starship rocket blasting into space.

It was, after all, Elon Musk who strapped boosters to Donald Trump’s campaign and helped propel him to a decisive victory.

The world’s richest man has bombarded his more than 200 million followers on the platform he controls with pro-Trump content – some true, much false. 

There’s also evidence that since Musk endorsed the president-elect, X algorithms amplified pro-Trump content. 

“I don’t think this race would even be close if it wasn’t for what Elon Musk was doing with X and showing people what is going on,” Donald Trump Jr said in a polling day podcast.

Throw in Musk’s tens of millions in campaign donations to  Trump, million-dollar giveaways to voters, appearances at his rallies and podcasts supporting him, and we have ourselves a winner.

But what is in it for Elon Musk?

First is the role promised to him by Trump as head of a new Department of Government Efficiency. This would give the billionaire the power to scythe through US federal bureaucracy that both he and Trump say has long held America back.

Musk certainly feels it holds him back. Environmental and safety regulations have, at times, delayed his break-neck rocket testing programme and the roll out of self-driving Tesla robo-taxis.

He nicknamed the would-be new department DOGE – a reference to the dogecoin cryptocurrency he promotes – and came up with it so quickly you wonder if the idea was his all along.

Removing regulatory barriers to his own business interests, or cutting contracts for his more cumbersome, government-dependent rivals such as Boeing, would clearly appeal.

But Musk is also ideological and wants to go much further – arguing there is $2trn in inefficiency to be slashed from the federal budget.

He didn’t become the world’s richest man by doing things by half.

Musk’s purchase of Twitter for $44bn in 2022 was seen as a spectacularly bad business move. Does it look that way now?

He also wants Trump to deliver on his promise to promote the cryptocurrencies he backs ideologically and is invested in financially.

And Musk’s gamble in backing Trump is already paying off. The value of his companies including Tesla have grown. If X and Space X were publicly traded, it’s expected they’d have soared too.

The Trump-Musk relationship takes America into new, very uncertain territory. But will it endure? 

Musk might bring the White House Silicon Valley expertise and cash. He has promised to continue his America political action committee (PAC) donations to support Republicans. His control of social media is a formidable tool for the Trump administration.

However, the president-elect’s plans for aggressive tariffs could destroy Tesla’s business with China. Musk has said “f*** oil” –  Trump calls it “liquid gold”.

Then there’s the two men themselves. Trump has said he will accept only total loyalty in his new administration.

Musk is famous for not suffering those he sees as fools, and a willingness to blow things up in his dogged pursuit of success. 

This could all end with a bang.

In the past few hours, the Republican Party has secured the presidency and won back the Senate from the Democrats.

You can read more about how the party secured the Senate by clicking here and the presidency by clicking here. 

Now, the party is edging closer to a victory in the House of Representatives. 

Only 15 seats are required for the Republicans to take full control of the second chamber of Congress – with 54 still up for grabs.

The Democrats, on the other hand, need 40 of those 54. 

Of those 54 seats, Democrats currently lead in 35, while Republicans lead in the other 19 – but many are extremely tight races so could easily fall either way. 

20 of those uncalled House seats are in California – which, in theory, should be safe Democrat spots.  

Explained: Bills must pass through the Senate and the House of Representatives to become law – together, they’re known as the US Congress.

The House decides which laws can be voted on, while the Senate can block or approve them, confirm appointments made by the president and conduct investigations against those in charge.

Crucially, if the Republican Party gains control of both chambers, Donald Trump (when officially in office) will have an easier path to pushing through his legislative agenda. 

There are two senators for each state – amounting to 100 overall – while the House of Representatives has 435 seats, weighted according to population.

Senators are up for election every six years, but these are staggered so a third of them face voters every two years.

The entire House of Representatives goes through an election every two years.

By Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor

Donald Trump said he would end Russia’s war in Ukraine if he returned to the White House – but any rushed deal will likely leave Kyiv much weaker and European security in even greater peril.

Another major flashpoint a Trump presidency will immediately seek to influence is the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel.

Mr Trump came close to direct war with Tehran during his first term in office and prior restraint could well give way to direct confrontation this time around.

Then there is the overwhelming longer-term challenge posed by China, with North Korea another growing headache.

Mr Trump’s track record of unpredictability is a challenge for traditional foes – but also for Washington’s closest allies, in particular fellow members of the NATO alliance.

Read Haynes’s full analysis here…

Kamala Harris will address her supporters and the nation from Washington DC in the afternoon US time, three aides have told our partner network NBC News.

Washington DC is five hours behind the UK, so we won’t likely hear from her until the early evening at the earliest here – but we’ll cover her speech in this live blog. 

Harris had hoped to be making her victory speech on the grounds of Howard University, but she’ll be making a very different address after her crushing defeat at the hands of Donald Trump. 

Harris campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond told the crowd assembled at the campus overnight they would hear from Harris at some point today, before dejectedly sending them home.

A reminder that Harris is yet to officially concede. 

There’s no silver lining for the Democrats. 

Donald Trump has won everywhere and he’s going to win the popular vote.

He did better across the demographics – growing his coalition with Black voters, Latinos, young voters. 

The US became less racially divided by party. 

Meanwhile, Kamala Harris underperformed Joe Biden virtually everywhere, as Trump improved on his 2020 margin in 2,367 counties. 

His margin decreased in only 240 counties.

Why did Trump do so well?

Trump didn’t just sweep up in the swing states, and none of them are going to be that close. 

He closed the gap on Harris in a tonne of blue states. 

She turned out anaemic victories in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Minnesota, while he expanded his margins in red states to take generationally big victories in Florida and Iowa. 

He flipped Miami Dade county, winning a heavily Latino county Hillary Clinton won by 30 points by 10 in 2016. 

He drove down Harris margins in big urban centres everywhere, including Chicago, New York and Austin.

What did the Democrats do wrong?

1. Biden stayed too long
2. Lack of primary process meaning that Democrats were denied opportunity to pick someone not associated with Biden-Harris administration – which also denied them an opportunity to properly develop a message 
3. Afghanistan withdrawal (Biden’s polling never recovered)
4. Too much (somewhat) inflationary stimulus spending during COVID
5. The handling of Israel’s war in Gaza 
6. Long-term attrition in ethnic minority voter base without corresponding improvements with white voters
7. Trump’s enduring political appeal and Democrats’ confusion as to how to deal with him.

How bad a loss is this?

This feels a far more devastating loss for the Democrats than in 2016. 

In that year they had plenty of things to console them – a massive popular vote victory, a narrow electoral college loss in a few places, a rock solid ethnic minority coalition which looked like a solid electoral map of the future. 

Roe vs Wade was intact and the Supreme Court was still balanced. 

They have none of that now. 

Instead, they’re staring down the barrel of a transformed Republican Party and a sustained inability to know how to deal with Trump and MAGAism. 

In policy terms, they also have nowhere to go. 

In Biden’s term, they governed exactly in line with their own instincts – and it’s been soundly rejected by the electorate.

What does it mean for Trump?

This victory cements Trump’s position as the pivotal American political figure this century. 

Biden thought he would be the restoration of the old order – but Trump has ensured that he was the last gasp of it. 

The Republican Party is now permanently MAGA and the Democrats will change too –  the old liberal order isn’t coming back. 

Economic policy will be more protectionist in every direction, both parties more isolationist, politics more aggressive, and the Democrats less likely to pick history-making candidates. 

Politics will look more like Trump in the future, not least as his movement now has a natural heir and successor in JD Vance, a young ambitious VP. 

Meanwhile, the Democrats have no obvious leaders at all.

Donald Trump has recorded an emphatic defeat of Kamala Harris, racing past the 270 electoral votes he needed with states to spare.

A win in Wisconsin tipped him over the line, but it was his victories in the key states of Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina – the three largest battlegrounds – that left Kamala Harris facing an insurmountable task.

Harris is yet to win a single one of the seven battlegrounds, and Trump is also likely to win the popular vote for the first time. That would be the first Republican popular vote victory since 2004 and only the second since 1988.

Find out how Trump was able to claim victory via maps and charts produced for us by our elections analyst Professor Will Jennings and our Data and Forensics Unit.