Donald Trump has won the US presidential election, media said, defeating Kamala Harris in a stunning political comeback that will send shock waves across the world. The polarizing Republican's victory, following one of the most hostile campaigns in modern US history, was all the more remarkable given an unprecedented criminal conviction, a near-miss assassination attempt, and warnings from a former chief of staff that he is a "fascist".
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00:00Kamala, you're fired. Get out. Get out. You're fired.
00:05He was impeached twice, found liable in fraud and sexual abuse lawsuits,
00:10convicted of dozens of felonies, survived two assassination attempts,
00:14and has been declared politically dead again and again.
00:18But now, the billionaire businessman Donald Trump has come back stronger than ever
00:23to be elected as the President of the United States of America for a second time.
00:28Before he rode down the golden escalator of Trump Tower to announce his 2016 White House bid,
00:34Trump was a popular figure whom few took seriously.
00:38He was famous mostly for the ruthless character he played on the reality TV show The Apprentice,
00:43as well as for developing luxury buildings and golf resorts,
00:47and for his third wife, Melania, a former fashion model.
00:50A former fashion model.
00:53So when he won the 2016 election, Trump left the world stunned.
01:00I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans.
01:07And this is so important to me.
01:11His story begins in New York City in the 1970s,
01:14when he took over his father's real estate empire
01:17and launched his persona as America's most famous playboy billionaire.
01:24Behind the sheen of A-lister success, though,
01:26lay a tangled record of bankruptcies, lawsuits and eyebrow-raising loans.
01:33Trump has gone to great lengths to hide this less glamorous picture,
01:37breaking presidential tradition and refusing to release his tax returns.
01:42Totally fake news.
01:44No, actually, I paid tax.
01:46And you'll see that as soon as my tax returns.
01:50It's underwrote.
01:51They've been underwrote for a long time.
01:53The IRS does not treat me well.
01:55When several years of his returns were finally made public,
01:59it emerged that there were several years when Trump was paying
02:02almost no income tax due to business losses.
02:06In early 2024, a judge ruled that Trump and his company had unlawfully inflated his wealth
02:12and manipulated the value of properties to obtain favourable bank loans or insurance terms.
02:18He was fined $355 million plus interest.
02:22He does, however, remain exceedingly rich.
02:25He is worth no less than several billion dollars, according to Forbes magazine.
02:32Worshipped by supporters, he is considered by detractors to be a danger to the country.
02:37And he still claims falsely to have won the 2020 election.
02:42Why aren't they investigating November 3rd, a rigged and stolen election
02:50without getting to the bottom of which we will never have a fair and free democracy?
02:58Trump's life is awash with substantial legal allegations, convictions and rulings.
03:05Most recently, in May 2024,
03:08he was convicted in New York on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records
03:13to hide a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels during the heat of the 2016 election.
03:21This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge. It was corrupt.
03:28The ruling made Trump the first ever former US president convicted of a felony.
03:38He still faces three other pending criminal cases,
03:44including charges related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election,
03:50when his supporters stormed the US Capitol egged on by Trump.
03:56To his base, he is the man that constitutes a giant middle finger to every member of the
04:00establishment, from the Republican Party bigwigs to leftist Hollywood and the media.
04:08The fake news likes to say, oh, he was rambling. No, no, that's not rambling. That's genius.
04:14Forsaken by his camp after the assault on the Capitol,
04:17Trump has succeeded in regaining control of the Republican Party
04:21and to get himself reelected again by painting an apocalyptic picture of America
04:26ravaged, according to him, by galloping inflation and migrants who are poisoning
04:31the blood of the country. Trump has escalated threats against his political opponents,
04:36calling them the enemy from within, with critics accusing him of authoritarianism
04:41and of weaponising immigration for political gain. During the campaign, Democrats have
04:47relentlessly focused on Trump as a fascist who threatens democracy and women's reproductive rights.
04:54These United States of America, we are not a vessel for the schemes of wannabe dictators.
05:02They keep saying, he's a threat to democracy. I'm saying,
05:05what the hell did I do for democracy? Last week, I took a bullet for democracy.
05:12The picture of Trump face bloodied and fist raised after he was shot in July at a rally
05:18in Pennsylvania has become one of the defining images of the campaign
05:22and one of the most iconic in US political history.
05:24When he's sworn in at 78 years old, he will be the oldest person to ever become the US president.