Five takeaways from Trump’s victory speech

Donald Trump claimed victory as the 47th president-elect of the US early on Wednesday in a jubilant speech to his supporters in Florida.

Without waiting for his Democratic rival Kamala Harris to concede the race, Trump announced his return to the White House for a second, non-consecutive term soon after The Associated Press called the election in his favour.

Flanked by his family members and political associates, including Vice President-elect JD Vance, Trump threw in many impromptu comments in a prepared speech that he read off the teleprompter.

Here are the five takeaways from his 25-minute address to his supporters.

‘I’m going to stop wars’

Trump reiterated his position on the ongoing wars in the Middle East and Ukraine in unequivocal terms—something his Democratic rival failed to do throughout her months-long campaign.

“You know we had no wars for years. We had no wars, except when we defeated ISIS. We defeated ISIS in record time. But we had no wars. They said, ‘he will start a war.’ I’m not going to start a war, I’m going to stop wars,” he said.

In the run-up to the election, Trump repeatedly said he would bring Israel’s war on Gaza to an immediate end.

Similarly, he has claimed that he could convince Russia and Ukraine to end their war in one day.

In contrast, Harris consistently sent mixed signals on the Gaza war. She would defend the pro-Israel approach of the Biden-Harris White House while paying lip-service to the plight of Gaza where Tel Aviv has killed over 43,000 people, mostly women and children, since October 7, 2023.

Trump’s latest comment reiterating his commitment to ensuring immediate peace in the Middle East is in line with his anti-war position expressed in an April interview. “Get it over with and let’s get back to peace and stop killing people.”

Regardless of his seemingly anti-war position, Trump likes to identify himself as the "most pro-Israel president" in the history of the US. Unlike his other claims, this one actually stands up to scrutiny.

It was under Trump’s presidency that the Arab-Israeli normalisation process started as part of the Abraham Accords, bilateral agreements that Israel signed with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in 2020.

In a break with official US policy for decades, the Trump administration also recognised Jerusalem as capital of Israel and shifted the US embassy from Tel Aviv, a move that drew global protest.

‘Legal’ immigrants are welcome

Trump’s campaign repeatedly demonised migrants, both regular and irregular, in the run-up to the November 5 election. But the victory speech by the president-elect on Wednesday demonstrated a shift from his earlier blanket opposition to immigration.

“We’re going to have to let people come into our country. We want people to come back in, but… they have to come in legally,” he said.

Trump plans to reintroduce his first-term policy of curbing illegal border crossings. “We’re going to have to seal up those borders… We’re going to fix our borders,” he said.

According to an estimate by the US Department of Homeland Security, as many as 11 million irregular migrants lived in the US as of January 2022.

Trump has also promised to limit access to asylum while embarking on the “biggest deportation effort in American history”.

Let the healing begin

In an uncharacteristic tone and language, Trump declared his intention to help the US “heal” the wounds of divisive politics.

“We’re going to help our country heal… We’ve built the biggest, the broadest, the most unified coalition… Young and old, men and women, rural and urban,” he said in the victory speech that followed a months-long campaign that villainised a large number of voters among Latinos, women and others.

Trump said his campaign received support from “all corners” of society, including unionised workers, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Arab Americans and Muslim Americans.

“We had everybody and it was beautiful. It was a historic realignment, uniting citizens of all backgrounds around a common core of common sense… we’re the party of common sense,” he said.

Nod to influencers

Trump spent arguably the biggest chunk of his 25-minute speech acknowledging support from Elon Musk, the richest American who doled out about $100 million to Trump’s campaign.

“(Musk) is a special guy. He’s a super genius. We have to protect our geniuses. We don’t have that many of them,” he said, referring to the space entrepreneur who also owns X, a social media platform that evidently amplified Trump’s message in the run-up to Election Day.

The president-elect also talked approvingly about pop-culture icons like Joe Rogan, a social media influencer with millions of followers who endorsed Trump in the final hours of the 2024 campaign.

Podcaster Theo Von and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) CEO Dana White also received VIP treatment by Trump during the victory speech.

Fossil fuels, all the way

Trump declared in unambiguous terms that his administration is going to increase the use of fossil fuels.

He claimed the US has “more liquid gold, oil and gas” than any other country in the world.

Robert F Kennedy Jr, who is one of the likely cabinet members in the incoming administration, has been a lifelong environmental activist with firm opposition to fossil fuels.

Praising Kennedy as a “great guy”, Trump asked the Democrat-turned-Trump supporter to “stay away from liquid gold”.

“He wants to do some things, and we’re gonna let him go to it. I just said, ‘But Bobby, leave the oil to me… Other than that, go have a good time, Bobby’”, he said.