World, state reaction to Trump's 'stunning political comeback victory'

World leaders early Wednesday congratulated President-elect Donald Trump on his return to the White House as news outlets called the 2024 presidential race for the Republican and former president.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country is managing a multi-front war in the Middle East, became one of the first world leaders to congratulate Trump on what Fox News called Trump’s “stunning political comeback victory.”

“Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America,” Netanyahu wrote about 3 a.m. in Washington, D.C. — 10 a.m. in Israel — on X. “This is a huge victory!”

“Congratulations, President Trump — ready to work together as we did for four years,” French President Emmanuel Macron posted to X, about 10 minutes after Netanyahu. “With your convictions and mine. With respect and ambition. For more peace and prosperity.”

“Heartiest congratulations my friend @realDonaldTrump on your historic election victory,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X. “Together, let’s work for the betterment of our people and to promote global peace, stability and prosperity.”

Reaction in Pennsylvania

Some elected leaders in Pennsylvania — with 19 electoral votes, the prize among U.S. swing states — voiced optimism as polls closed Tuesday.

“I think Kamala Harris closed really strong,” Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat vetted as a possible vice presidential candidate for Harris, told reporters. “I think our field effort was really unmatched.”

“Some of Pa.’s top Democrats, including Gov. Josh Shapiro, are expressing optimism about turnout in Philadelphia,” the Philadelphia Inquirer posted late Tuesday.

As of 8 a.m., the state Democratic Party had not posted a comment to social media about Trump’s win in the Keystone State.

Michigan

On Wednesday in Michigan, part of what Democrats dubbed a “Blue Wall” in an effort to bolster Electoral College votes, at least one news outlet appeared hesitant to say their state had concurred with the majority of American voters.

“Donald Trump has won enough Electoral College votes to return to the White House even though Michigan’s presidential race remained too close to call as of Wednesday morning,” Bridge Michigan, which bills itself as “Michigan’s nonpartisan, nonprofit news source,” wrote in Lansing, Mich.

“Michigan was a key swing state and part of the Democrats’ ‘blue wall’ that fell when Trump won Pennsylvania,” the news outlet added. “Top issues in (the) race included the direction of Michigan’s auto industry, the economy, abortion rights and immigration.”

As of 8 a.m. Wednesday, Trump held a 91,400-vote lead in Michigan, with about 97% of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press. Trump has 2,756,287 votes — just under 50% of the state’s total votes — compared to 2,664,865 votes (or 48.3%) for Harris.

Trump lost the state by more than 154,000 votes in 2020.

Early results showed Trump topping his 2020 performance throughout the state, especially in rural areas.

Harris, by comparison, fared better in Michigan cities. In Wayne County, home to Detroit, she netted 500,371 votes — about 63% — to Trump’s 267,492, according to online vote tallies. But, in Oakland County, near Wayne County, Harris won by just 8% — short of the 14% Biden won in 2020.

Republicans in the state celebrated the GOP win.

Michigan Republican Party Chairman Pete Hoekstra took to YouTube to cut off a party staffer’s hair after Fox News called the race early Wednesday for Trump. The staffer, former Republican Party chief of staff Paul Cordes, bet that he’d cut his long hair if Michiganders returned Trump to the White House.

Late Tuesday, however, state Democrats avoided political rhetoric online.

“With polls closing and ballots being counted, I am so proud of Michigan Dems’ hard work to turn out voters and get Democrats elected up and down the ballot,” Lavora Barnes, chair of the state’s Democratic Party, wrote in a prepared statement. “Michigan Dems will continue to engage with our communities and fight for Michiganders’ rights and families every day.”

Others chalked up the Trump win to support from Arabs and Muslims, many of them concerned with the Biden/Harris administration’s stance on war in Gaza.

As of 7 a.m., 42% of voters in the city of Dearborn, Mich., the largest majority Arab American city in the U.S., had cast nearly 18,000 votes for Trump, compared to about 15,000 votes — or 36% — for Harris and 7,500 votes — about 18% — for Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

The New Republic characterized Arab and Muslim support for Trump as “a rebuke of the Biden administration’s handling of Israel’s brutal bombing campaign of Gaza and Lebanon.”

“The Muslim vote may cost (Harris) Michigan — a determinative swing state,” Khaled Beydoun, a self-described scholar based in Detroit, wrote on X around midnight.

“For the many Arabs and Muslims who endorsed Kamala Harris after she ignored us on Gaza, perhaps tonight serves a lesson that a token ‘seat at the table’ isn’t worth being connected to a genocide,” he later added.

Wisconsin

Some news outlets in Wisconsin used dueling Milwaukee rallies by Trump and Harris held in the last days of the election to illustrate “differing styles” between the candidates.

The candidates drew crowds Nov. 1 about 6 miles apart in Wisconsin’s largest city. Harris generally stuck to the script in a speech that lasted 24 minutes, NBC News reported, while Trump gave a signature rally speech, veering off-script and rambling on odd topics including his audio equipment over nearly 90 minutes.

“Trump wins White House in political comeback rooted in appeals to frustrated voters,” the Wisconsin State Journal, a news outlet based in Madison, the state’s capital, wrote early Wednesday.

As of 6:50 a.m., a 30,000-vote margin appeared to hand Trump Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes.

The Republican had collected 1,688,828 votes — 49.74% of Wisconsin’s total — with 99% of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press. Harris had received 1,657,476 votes — 48.82% of the vote.

Harris performed well in Wisconsin cities. As of 7 a.m., she had captured nearly 75% of the vote in Milwaukee — about 274,000 votes, online tallies showed.

The Associated Press said it declared Trump the victor in Wisconsin around 5:30 a.m. once it determined that remaining uncounted votes — mostly from the greater Milwaukee area — would not be enough to allow Harris to overtake Trump.

Democrats clinched Wisconsin’s electoral votes in every presidential race between 1988 through 2012. Trump reversed that trend in 2016, however, beating Hillary Clinton by about 0.7% of the vote. Biden narrowly won the state in 2020.

National election margins have been razor-thin in Wisconsin for several years. Five of the past seven presidential races, including 2024’s Trump/Harris contest, have been decided by a margin of 1% or less, records show.

Last week at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum, the same venue where Trump formally accepted the Republican Party’s presidential nomination this summer, Trump promised the crowd that, if he’s elected again, he will bring America back to its “golden age.”

“America will be bigger, better, bolder, richer, safer and stronger than ever before,” Trump said.

One political analyst on Fox6, or WITI, a TV station the Fox network operates in Milwaukee, called Wisconsin a “tipping state” for the former president.

One Latino voter at a Trump rally in Milwaukee told the Wisconsin Examiner he wasn’t a big fan of Trump before 2016. But Fernano Puente’s opinion of the Republican as “arrogant” changed when Trump started addressing “the border” and inflation.

“All the polls say it’s coming out tight,” Puente said of the presidential election. “I’m here on the ground. I see that it’s going to be a landslide. Trump is going to win big.”