Donald Trump wins Arizona, defeats Harris in all seven battleground states

US president-elect Donald Trump has won the election in Arizona, defeating his Democrat rival Kamala Harris in all seven battleground states.

The seven battleground states in this election cycle were Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia.

The victory in Arizona took Trump's electoral college tally to 312 against 226 of vice-president Harris. Arizona holds 11 electoral college votes.

The Republican Party has regained control of the Senate and is all set to retain a majority in the House of Representatives.

Currently, the party has 52 seats in the Senate and the Democrats have 47.

In the House, Republicans have so far won 216 seats against 209 of the Democrats. The majority mark is 218. Republicans are confident that they will get the necessary number of seats to cross the halfway mark.

 In 2020, president Joe Biden became the first Democrat to win Arizona since Bill Clinton in 1996. Trump has now flipped it back.

He campaigned heavily on border security, immigration and crime committed by illegal immigrants on the trail, all issues that resonated in the state with a record influx of migrants in 2023.

Trump pledged mass deportations, promoted hiring an additional 10,000 border agents to patrol the US-Mexico border and promised to use some of the military budget for border funding.

Arizona is the sixth state Trump has flipped from Biden’s Electoral College victory in 2020.

The other Biden-won states where Trump prevailed this year are Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Trump also won North Carolina, a state he carried narrowly in 2020.

Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on 20 January.

Meanwhile, Biden has invited his successor Trump for a meeting at the White House on 13 November, which would formally begin the presidential transition.

“At president Biden’s invitation, both will meet in the Oval Office on Wednesday at 11:00 am,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

The meeting between the outgoing president and the incoming one is ceremonial and is seeped into decades old tradition. It is generally held in the Oval Office during which the outgoing president gives the president-elect a briefing about the key agenda of the country.

The president-elect is also given a tour of the White House. It involves a meeting between the First Lady and the incoming First Lady. This is only the second time in American history that a president is re-elected after a gap of four years.

In this case, president-elect Donald Trump, who was the 45th president of the United States for four years beginning 20 January 2017, and First Lady Melania Trump are familiar with the workings of the White House and a presidential administration.

The customary meeting between the outgoing and incoming president, which signifies a peaceful transfer of power, was paused in 2020 when Trump had not conceded the election. He also did not attend the swearing-in ceremony of president Joe Biden.

A similar meeting between outgoing vice-president Kamala Harris and her successor J.D. Vance is also being scheduled.

However, Trump ruled out two of his previous Cabinet members -- former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and former envoy to the United Nations Nikki Haley – to be part of his upcoming administration.

Trump, 78, was elected as the 47th president of the United States. He defeated Harris, 60, in the elections held on 5 November. In the first term, Trump served as the 45th president from 20 January 2017, to 20 January 2021.

"I will not be inviting former ambassador Nikki Haley, or former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, to join the Trump administration, which is currently in formation,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Pompeo served as the CIA director and secretary of state in his first term, while Haley served as his ambassador to the United Nations in the first two years of his presidency. Both his cabinet-ranking officials later entered the presidential race against him in the Republican primaries.

While Pompeo dropped from the race early, Haley was the last challenger against Trump till February 2024. Later on, the two endorsed his campaign. Haley announced her support for Trump during the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin in July 2024.

However, in his post, Trump thanked his two former cabinet officials for their service.

"I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously, and would like to thank them for their service to our country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump said.