2024 US election winner: What we know about Donald Trump and his stance on Ukraine
Photo: Donald Trump won the US presidential election (Getty Images)
Republican Donald Trump won the US election. Trump has already declared himself the newly elected president, but the official inauguration will take place on January 20, 2025. It will be his second term, during which he promises to end all wars.
Read about Donald Trump's biography, career path, and stance on Ukraine in the article below.
Contents
- Trump will become the 47th President of the United States
- Trump’s biography
- President with two impeachments
- Trump in the 2024 election
- What Donald Trump said about the war in Ukraine
Trump will become the 47th President of the United States
The US election took place on November 5. By the morning of the next day, it was clear that Trump would win. Trump secured 277 electoral votes (270 is the minimum required) and received 70.8 million votes. Meanwhile, his opponent, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, received 224 electoral votes and 65.8 million votes. On election night, exit polls showed Harris leading, by a narrow margin though.
In one of his speeches before the election, Trump said that the one who wins Pennsylvania will win the election. And that’s exactly what happened. Once Trump secured Pennsylvania, it became clear that he won.
One of the first to declare Trump the winner was the pro-Republican channel Fox News, followed by Trump himself, who declared his victory and promised to end the wars.
Trump is expected to officially become the President of the United States after his inauguration on January 20, 2025.
Trump’s biography
Donald John Trump is a 78-year-old politician and billionaire who built a family business empire.
He was born in New York City. During school, he had problems with behavior and, at his parents’ request, continued his education at a specialized military academy. He excelled in sports competitions there and was recognized for organizing various events. Trump later entered Fordham University and the Wharton Business School, where he earned a degree in economics.
After completing his studies, he worked at his father’s company, which built affordable housing in Brooklyn and Queens and was successful at that time. Donald Trump managed to scale the family business, and by 1988, he earned his first billion dollars and even licensed his own name.
The international real estate conglomerate The Trump Organization currently includes elite apartments in Manhattan - Trump Tower, the Trump World Tower skyscraper, the Las Vegas Hotel, the Chicago Hotel and Tower, the New York Hotel and Tower, hotels in various countries, Trump Entertainment Resorts casinos, golf courses, beach clubs, and resorts.
Photo: Trump built a career in real estate (Getty Images)
Trump became widely known in America thanks to the reality TV show The Apprentice. Over 14 seasons, he judged aspiring entrepreneurs competing for a one-year, $250,000 starting contract with The Trump Organization.
He also made cameo appearances in films like Home Alone 2, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Nanny, Two Weeks Notice, and the TV series Sex and the City.
In 2021, he became the owner of the media company Trump Media & Technology Group, which launched the Truth Social platform - a web portal and mobile app positioned as an alternative to social media platforms like X and Facebook.
President with two impeachments
In 2015, Donald Trump entered politics, running for president of the United States as a Republican candidate with the slogan Make America Great Again. His opponent was Hillary Clinton. Pre-election forecasts predicted a win for Clinton. She received 3 million more votes, but the peculiarities of the US electoral system allowed Trump to win by securing more support in key states.
Trump’s presidency was marked by a tough immigration policy and a decision to build a wall on the US-Mexico border, repealing Obama’s healthcare reform, and the biggest tax cuts in 30 years. He restricted trade with China, moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, and became the first US president in 25 years to meet with the leader of North Korea.
Trump also became the first president in history to face two impeachments, although he was not removed from office.
The first impeachment attempt was related to Ukraine. According to the accusation, Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2019 to investigate the involvement of Joe Biden's son Hunter in corruption schemes, in exchange for financial and military aid. It was an attempt to remove his main opponent for the 2020 election.
Photo: Donald Trump was the 45th president of the United States (Getty Images)
Trump was impeached a second time after the 2020 election, in which he lost to Joe Biden. A week before leaving office, Trump was accused of inciting an insurrection by encouraging his supporters to storm the Capitol.
Сriminal investigations were also opened into Trump’s activities. He faced 80 charges across four cases, including election interference, possession of classified White House documents, and falsifying business documents to cover payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels for her silence about providing intimate services.
Trump in the 2024 election
Donald Trump announced in 2022 that he intended to run for president again in 2024. The Republican Party officially confirmed his candidacy in August 2024.
Trump’s election program, Agenda 47, includes:
- Stricter rules for educational institutions (empowering parents and local school boards to hire and fire principals and teachers)
- A tough immigration policy (eliminating benefits and birthright citizenship for illegal immigrants, banning refugees)
- Repealing climate regulations (withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, increasing oil, gas, and coal extraction)
- Imposing universal tariffs on foreign goods and 100% tariffs on goods from countries not using the US dollar in international trade
- Gradually ending imports of essential goods from China and halting American companies' investments in China
- Reducing taxes for citizens and eliminating tips tax for restaurant workers
- Introducing the death penalty for drug traffickers, drug cartels, and human traffickers
Before the 2024 campaign officially started, there was a debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden as potential candidates for the Republican and Democratic parties. Western experts and media deemed Trump’s performance in this debate more successful.
Soon after, incumbent US President Joe Biden announced that he would not run for re-election and supported Vice President Kamala Harris’s candidacy.
Photo: Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in a debate (Getty Images)
Trump's next debate was with Harris, and the results were not in his favor. According to a CNN poll, 63% of the debate viewers gave the victory to Kamala Harris, and only 37% considered Donald Trump's speech more successful.
What Donald Trump said about the war in Ukraine
Donald Trump is known for his controversial stance on the war in Ukraine.
He sharply criticized Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, accusing him of refusing to negotiate with Russia. According to Trump, the Ukrainian leader "refused to make a deal" that could have prevented the country's destruction.
“Those cities are gone, they’re gone, and we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refused to make a deal, Zelenskyy. There was no deal that he could have made that wouldn’t have been better than the situation you have right now. You have a country that has been obliterated, not possible to be rebuilt,” Trump said.
He also criticized the current US administration for increasing military aid to Ukraine, arguing that it should be provided as a loan rather than a “gift.”
“Every time Zelenskyy comes to the United States he walks away with $100 billion, I think he’s the greatest salesman on Earth,” Trump said.
Trump emphasized that if elected president, he would “pull America out of the war” and quickly end the conflict through phone calls to the presidents of Russia and Ukraine: “On the evening of Nov. 5th, I will call Putin. I will call Zelenskyy. I’ll say, "We got to stop it." He vowed to make a deal in 24 hours.
One way Trump believes the war could end is by halving energy prices within a year after he takes office: “Putin could not fight when oil was $40 a barrel.”
Trump has repeatedly stated that he has a "good relationship" with Russian president Vladimir Putin, saying he “got along very well” with him and he "talked a lot" with Putin when he was president.
Photo: Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented Ukraine's victory plan to Donald Trump (Getty Images)
After a recent meeting with Zelenskyy in the US - which was in question until the very last minute - Trump said that he has a "very good relationship" with the Ukrainian president and wanted to visit Ukraine, though he did not specify when.
He also remarked that “Ukraine is going through hell,” calling it a “horrible situation.”
Trump also stressed the need for a “fair deal for all” and added that he learned a lot during his talks with the Ukrainian leader, during which Zelenskyy presented a victory plan.
Sources: Forbes, CNN, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Hill, and information from Wikipedia.
