Washington, United States:

It is not a job that she would have had on her bucket list, but a gracious Kamala Harris put on a brave face — and even a broad grin — on Monday as she presided over the certification of her defeat to Donald Trump in November’s presidential election.

The US Constitution requires that vice presidents — in their secondary role as president of the Senate — run the show when Congress holds its joint session to formally tally electoral college votes and name the new president.

The task can be more painful and unpleasant, though, for those statesmen and women such as Harris who end up having to officiate at the confirmation of their own electoral failure.

But Harris’s magnanimity could not have been in sharper contrast to Trump’s reaction to his defeat to Joe Biden in 2020.

She beamed as she received a standing ovation on reading out her vote total, before declaring that the official count “shall be deemed a sufficient declaration” for Trump to take his oath of office on January 20.

Harris had accepted defeat in November in a timely manner, unlike Trump in 2020, when he pressured government officials and members of Congress to reverse his defeat — earning himself impeachment and federal indictment.

His claims spurred his supporters to storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a violent bid to stop lawmakers from certifying his loss two months earlier to Joe Biden.

Harris, a former prosecutor, did not indulge in the baseless claims of voter fraud that Trump repeats to this day and launched no legal claims echoing the dozens of frivolous lawsuits that Trump’s allies filed in 2020.

During the ceremony itself she exchanged polite small talk with Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and, afterwards, hosted a press conference to argue for the peaceful transfer of power as a fundamental principle of US democracy.

“I do believe very strongly that America’s democracy is only as strong as our willingness to fight for — every single person, their willingness to fight for — and respect the importance of our democracy,” Harris told reporters.

“Otherwise, it is very fragile, and it will not be able to withstand moments of crisis. And today, America’s democracy stood.”

Harris lost all the swing states to Trump but was beaten in the popular vote by less than 1.5 percent, making it one of the closest elections in US history.

She has not revealed what she plans next, but has been pressed by allies to run again in 2028 or seek the governorship of her home state, California.

Harris is not the first vice president to have to preside over the certification of her own election defeat.

Richard Nixon in 1960 and Al Gore in 2000 faced the same difficult task after close, contentious elections and approached their duty with the same grace as Harris, generating standing ovations from members of both parties.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is poised to kick off his second term at the White House, a four-year stint that will likely see major shifts in domestic and foreign policy and transform the functioning of a wide range of American public institutions. The fact that he defied the odds, as predicted by pollsters and some sections of the U.S. media, to sweep the seven swing States of the country in the 2024 election, win both the popular vote and the electoral college, and end the presidential run of Democrat candidate Kamala Harris speaks to the disenchantment of the electorate with the previous administration, the reasons for which are still being debated widely.

Yet, it also says something about the entity that is Donald Trump, a man who remains a saviour to some, an enigma to others, and a symbol of an abhorrent brand of politics to many, including, perhaps, the majority of the 73 million who voted for Ms. Harris. To understand what the next four years portend for the U.S. and for the world, it is instructive to peer through the haze of weaponised propaganda on all sides and disambiguate what Mr. Trump truly stands for.

Mr. Trump has worn many hats over the long arc of his 78 years, and as he dons the mantle of the oldest President to enter the Oval Office, the sheer dexterity with which he has moved across career ‘avatars’ — from inheritor of a real estate empire to a cult TV show personality and then the head of a sprawling conglomerate to ultimately being a two-term President — reflects on the deep changeability of his core, and the lack of a fixed view — his detractors would call them values — on his professional mission.

Born in Queens, New York, in 1946, as the son of a successful real estate developer, Mr. Trump studied at the New York Military Academy and the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania. When he took control of the company of his father, Fred Trump, in 1971, he named it the Trump Organization, a corporate group that would go on to operate in a range of sectors, including commercial and residential buildings, resorts, hotels, golf courses, and casinos.

Among his several books was The Art of the Deal, published in 1987, which offers early hints about his belief that dealmaking is the true measure of success and the sole means to achieve it — a paradigm that runs contrary to the long-standing belief in, say, the U.S. State Department, that successful diplomacy entails “patiently building and deepening alliances and partnerships… playing a constructive role in regional institutions and investing time, at the highest levels, in regional summits”.

In a move that once again reflected what appeared to be Mr. Trump’s devotion to gimmickry and theatrics, at whose altar the loyalty of all his employees would be tested and judged, in 2004, he launched the hit reality television show The Apprentice. With his now famous dismissal line of “You’re Fired” going viral as a pop culture meme, the show solidified Mr. Trump’s credentials in the world of entertainment television, even if it prompted questions about his business ethics as they applied broadly across the Trump Organization. Especially by the time of his first presidential campaign in 2015, it became clear that no major U.S. company had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection more than Mr. Trump’s Atlantic City casino empire in the last 30 years — four distinct filings. In each of those cases, the implied corporate restructuring allowed Mr. Trump’s companies to stay afloat while shedding the unsustainable debt that it owed to banks, employees and suppliers.

Surprise win in 2016

With his record steeped in Wall Street shenanigans and proximity to power-broking at the highest echelons of the system, it came as a shock to many that Mr. Trump rose to meteoric heights in his campaign for the 2016 presidential election, all the while marketing himself as a man of the people, the saviour of blue-collar jobs in the Rust Belt, and as a political maverick far removed from Washington’s elite policymaking circles. Even his campaign slogan, ‘Make America Great Again’, was widely marketed to the benefit of the Trump campaign — reports suggest that, in a single year during 2024 alone, more than a million hats were sold at $40 per piece. However, on the eve of the 2016 election, major newspapers projected 90% odds that his rival, Democrat and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, would win the presidency — a failure by the U.S. mainstream media to recognise that Mr. Trump was in fact at the helm of a global nativist-populist movement that was poised to upturn the liberal economic consensus in the West and deglobalise its trade, investment and strategic cooperation paradigm by gradually eroding the rules-based international order.

Also read: Trump hush money trial highlights

While he lost the popular vote to Ms. Clinton, the electoral college saved Mr. Trump and put him in the White House for his first term, four years that witnessed a slew of policies that flew in the face of received wisdom for public policy on immigration, healthcare, defence and foreign relations. While his eyebrow-raising record as the 45th 46th Commander in Chief is well known, his most controversial policy outcomes included bungling mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic response that led to “tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths”; his broad-brush hostility towards minority demographics exemplified in the ‘Muslim ban’ and family separations carried out against undocumented migrants; his triggering of a trade war due to protectionist trade policies, including tariffs on in foreign aluminium, steel, and other products; his attempts to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into seeking evidence of corruption against President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter; and, most egregiously, his role in encouraging a violent mob that attacked and ransacked the U.S. Capitol buildings in early 2021 disputing his certified loss to Mr. Biden in the presidential election a few months earlier.

Yet, two impeachments, four criminal indictments, one fraud case conviction and an $83.3 million sexual assault judgement later, Mr. Trump has not just apparently won redemption in the eyes of the American voters, but has romped home to the White House on the back of a “red shift” in voting patterns that impacted almost every State — red and blue — in his favour. This time, post-election analyses suggest, independent and undecided voters in swing States were not even debating major questions of economic policy, such as the actual performance record of the Biden White House. Instead, it was “media appearances” such as the three-hour podcast conversation between Mr. Trump and Joe Rogan, a popular conservative commentator, that appeared to shift the mood in favour of Mr. Trump, as much as the optics of Mr. Trump warning Americans from the campaign podium about the dangers of unchecked immigration.

A Cabinet of loyalists

Now that Mr. Trump has the backing of the federal government trifecta — the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate controlled by the Republican Party — and a Supreme Court stacked with a 6-3 majority favouring conservative justices, he has a relatively free hand to reshape U.S. policy and institutions. The Cabinet that he has picked appears to have prioritised personal loyalty through the campaign season above all else — his former associates-turned-detractors, including Nikki Haley, have been sidelined, and instead a new cohort of conservatives has been picked despite their glaring lack of prior experience in the White House.

Notable among them are Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff, Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, Matt Gaetz as Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary, Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence, Tom Homan as “border czar”, Pete Hegseth as Defence Secretary, Lee Zeldin as EPA Administrator, Mike Huckabee as U.S. Ambassador to Israel, and Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as heads of Department of Government Efficiency.

While Ms. Wiles has experience as a political operative in Florida, Mr. Rubio, who hails from the same State, is known to be a hawk on China. Mr. Gaetz was once under investigation for sex trafficking of underage girls and is known as a MAGA lawmaker in the House who fiercely defended Mr. Trump and his policies on the floor on several occasions. Mr. Kennedy has been described as “a hardcore anti-vaccine and misinformation peddler [and the] last time he meddled in a state’s medical affairs (Samoa), 83 children died of measles.” Ms. Gabbard does not have any experience in intelligence and she is staunchly opposed to U.S. support to Ukraine in the latter’s fight against the Russian invasion. Reports also suggest that her “views on Russia and her 2017 meeting with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad have drawn controversy.”

Mr. Homan was the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the first Trump administration and Mr. Trump has said he “will be in charge of all Deportation of Illegal Aliens back to their Country of Origin”. While Mr. Hegseth has experience as an Army veteran who was deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, he has since been a co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekends”, a show on the conservative news channel. Mr. Zeldin is a former New York Republican Congressman who Mr. Trump said would “ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards”. Mr. Huckabee is also a TV personality – he has hosted a show on Fox News as well, and a radio programme, though he has a State-level public sector experience as Governor of Arkansas, from 1996 to 2007. Mr. Musk and Mr. Ramaswamy — ironic though it might seem to have two heads of a department designed to reduce government waste and excess — are from the private sector but have been noteworthy for speaking out strongly for Mr. Trump throughout his 2024 campaign. Between all of these potential nominees — assuming they are confirmed by the Senate, still a tall order in the case of several of Mr. Trump’s nominees — the presumed agenda would be to implement the Trump MAGA vision to the fullest extent possible over the four years.

Unfinished agenda

At the top of the list of Mr. Trump’s campaign slogan, “Promises Made, Promises Kept”, will likely be an attempt to carry out a mass deportation of undocumented workers, who number 11 million at last count, a figure that has been more or less constant since 2005. However, across several States, major urban hubs have emerged as “sanctuary cities” – those that have passed laws that restrict local law enforcement cooperation with the ICE Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), making it politically challenging to carry out any sort of detention and deportation activities on a scale that could matter. Then there are logistical and economic challenges — the non-partisan American Immigration Council estimates that such an immigration proposal could potentially cost taxpayers more than $300 billion. However, Mr. Trump will likely take certain actions that will win him some political capital from the immigration hawks that will circle his administration. After all, under the previous Trump administration, around 1.5 million people were deported, and the Biden administration came close to that figure — both of which were dwarfed by their predecessor, Barack Obama’s record of deporting nearly 3 million people over two terms.

Secondly, a corporate tax cut is likely, at least the renewal of the lapsing cuts that Mr. Trump had introduced in 2017, through the so-called Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The problem is that while the policy reduced taxes for most people, it was criticised for disproportionately benefiting the wealthy: the non-partisan Center on Budget and Policies Priorities noted that under this law, households with incomes in the top 1% would receive an average tax cut of more than $60,000 in 2025, compared to an average tax cut of less than $500 for households in the bottom 60%. Additionally, the Trump tax cut “Was expensive and eroded the U.S. revenue base… and failed to deliver promised economic benefits,” the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) noted.

Third, in the foreign policy space, a retaliation-based trade war of uncertain proportions is almost a certainty on the global economic stage, as Mr. Trump has promised a 10-20% cross-cutting tariff on all $3 trillion worth of U.S. goods imports and a special, punitive 60% tariff on Chinese goods. Beyond that destabilising action, and based on the first Trump administration’s plan for the U.S. to exit the Paris climate agreement, the Iran nuclear deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, UNESCO, UNHRC, NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), and more, it is quite likely that America’s inward withdrawal from global, multilateral, and regional engagements will continue apace. This may well have a strong impact on the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and broader conflicts in West Asia and the South China Sea, besides innumerable bilateral and regional arrangements that may fall into disarray, perhaps to the detriment and chagrin of U.S. allies and partners across the world.

Trumpism unleashed

After four more years of Mr. Trump, the U.S., and indeed the world, may be a very different place. His second term is coterminous with the zenith of the MAGA movement. What began in 2016 as a poignant political assertion of the basic principles of Trumpism — a complex blend of concerns over genuine economic despair and social disempowerment of White America with an unapologetic articulation of baser sentiments rooted in racism, misogyny and bigotry — will now find free flow and seep into every public institution of the U.S. and transform the very core of the socioeconomic landscape of the country. Mr. Trump’s time at the helm of this movement will end one day, but the forces that he has unleashed may live well beyond that time.

Donald Trump, who is set to return to the White House after his victory over Kamala Harris in the November 5 US presidential elections, has appointed former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard as his US Intelligence Chief. The 78-year-old leader has secured all seven swing states, including Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Nevada.

On Wednesday evening (IST), Trump met President Joe Biden in the Oval Office of the White House where Biden welcomed Trump and congratulated him following his victory, saying that he looks forward to a smooth transition.”Congratulations, looking forward to having a, like we said, smooth transition — do everything we can to make sure you’re accommodated, and what you need. And we’re going to get a chance to talk about some of that today,” Biden said in the meeting with Trump.

Here are live updates on Donald Trump’s return to White House:

Barack Obama also voiced pride over the efforts of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Washington:

Eminent Indian Americans on Wednesday welcomed the re-election of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States and assured to work with him on several issues, including that of the US-India relationship.

“Congratulations to President Donald Trump on his decisive victory. We are in a golden age of American innovation and are committed to working with his administration to help bring the benefits to everyone,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said.

Congratulations to President @realDonaldTrump on his decisive victory. We are in a golden age of American innovation and are committed to working with his administration to help bring the benefits to everyone. pic.twitter.com/IPX7AJ8VvI

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) November 6, 2024

“The American people have spoken. Congratulations to President Trump on a strong win. Now, it’s time for the American people to come together, pray for our country, and start the process of a peaceful transition,” former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley said.

“That begins with Kamala Harris conceding. You can’t just talk about unity in a campaign, you have to show it regardless of the outcome,” Ms Haley said.

The American people have spoken.

Congratulations to President Trump on a strong win. Now, it’s time for the American people to come together, pray for our country, and start the process of a peaceful transition.

That begins with Kamala Harris conceding. You can’t just talk…

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) November 6, 2024

“What a great day for America! Let’s take a moment to celebrate. Then begins the hard work to get our country back on track!” said former Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.

What a great day for America! Let’s take a moment to celebrate. Then begins the hard work to get our country back on track!

— Gov. Bobby Jindal (@BobbyJindal) November 6, 2024

“It’s almost morning in America,” said Vivek Ramaswamy, a Trump confidant. “Now let’s go save a country,” he said.

“Congratulations to President Trump. We look forward to working with him and his administration on issues of bilateral importance in the US-India relationship, and on global challenges that the two countries can lead on together,” said M R Rangaswami, founder, Indiaspora, a community engagement platform.

“Congratulations President Elect Trump! America failed to elect its First Women President again! People have voted for a change to handle border issues, economy, immigration, crime, wars! I respect their choice. We did all we can!” said Ajay Jain Bhaturia, a major fundraiser of the Kamala Harris campaign.

New York-based prominent entrepreneur Al Mason said: “God saved Trump from two assassination attempts – there is a reason for the same. Trump is going to be a messiah for the American people and the rest of the world. There will be a very prosperous America, a safer world free of wars. In fact, a golden era begins for the United States of America.”

Dr Krishna Reddy, chair of Indian American Friendship Council, congratulated Trump for the super victory. “This is the beginning of super US-India relations and together we keep the world safe again. This is the great strength of Indian Americans to build a robust economy again and Indian Americans are a great part of this success,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Watch: Husain Haqqani | Pakistan may not be high priority for Trump

Following Donald Trump’s victory in the US elections, former Pakistan ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, talks to Suhasini Haidar on how Pakistan will view his presidency, how Trump swung votes in his favour, Trump’s approach to Israel, Russia, the West Asia crisis, and more.

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump addresses supporters during his rally for the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election in Palm Beach County Convention Center, in West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., November 6, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Donald Trump claimed victory and pledged to “heal” the country Wednesday (November 6, 2024) as results put him on the verge of beating Kamala Harris in a stunning White House comeback.

His exuberant speech came despite the fact that only Fox News had declared him the winner, with no other U.S. networks having made the call so far.

Also Read: U.S. Elections 2024 results highlights

As jubilant supporters cheered and chanted “USA”, Mr. Trump took to the stage at his campaign headquarters in Florida along with his wife Melania and several of his children.

“We are going to help our country heal,” the Republican former President said.

“It’s a political victory that our country has never seen before.”

U.S. networks have called the swing states of Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina for the 78-year-old, and he led the Democratic Vice President in the others,, although they have not been called yet.

Gloom swiftly descended on Ms. Harris’s camp.

“You won’t hear from the vice president tonight but you will hear from her tomorrow,” Cedric Richmond, Ms. Harris campaign co-chair, told a watch party in Washington as supporters left.

In a further blow to Democrats, Mr. Trump’s Republican Party also seized control of the Senate, flipping two seats to overturn a narrow Democratic majority.

A Trump victory threatens to cause shockwaves around the world, as U.S. allies in Europe and Asia fear a return of his nationalist policies and his praise of autocrats like Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

But the U.S. dollar surged and bitcoin hit a record high while most equity markets advanced as traders bet on a victory for Mr. Trump as the results rolled in.

Mood shift

Polls for weeks had shown a knife-edge race between Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump, who would be the oldest ever President at the time of inauguration, the first felon President and only the second in history to serve non-consecutive terms.

Mr. Trump also faces sentencing in a criminal case over hush money payments on November 26, while the controversy over his denial of his 2020 election defeat by Joe Biden still persists.

But in the end victory came surprisingly quickly.

The mood shifted sharply at Ms. Harris’s watch party in Howard University — her former college and a historically Black university in Washington — as the results came in.

“I am scared,” said Charlyn Anderson. “I am anxious now. I am leaving, my legs can barely move.”

In contrast, the celebrations intensified at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and the watch party nearby.

Tech tycoon Elon Musk, who has backed Mr. Trump and stands to lead a government efficiency commission under him, posted a picture of himself with the Republican.

“Game, set and match,” Musk said on X, the social media network he owns along with the Tesla electric vehicle firm and the Space X company.

Millions of Americans had lined up throughout Election Day — and millions more voted early — in a race with momentous consequences for the United States and the world.

They were deciding whether to either hand a historic comeback to Mr. Trump or make Harris the first woman in the world’s most powerful job.

In a stark reminder of the tension — and fears of outright violence — dozens of bomb threats were made against polling stations in Georgia and Pennsylvania.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said the threats appeared to originate in Russia, which is accused by Washington of trying to meddle in the election. The threats were all hoaxes but succeeded in disrupting proceedings.

Dark rhetoric

Ms. Harris (60) had aimed to be only the second black and first person of South Asian descent to be President.

She made a dramatic entrance into the race when Mr. Biden dropped out in July, while Mr. Trump — twice impeached while president — has since ridden out two assassination attempts and a criminal conviction.

She hammered home her message that Mr. Trump was a threat to democracy and her opposition to Mr. Trump-backed abortion bans.

Mr. Trump has vowed an unprecedented deportation campaign of millions of undocumented immigrants, in a campaign full of dark rhetoric.

The election is being watched closely around the world including in the war zones of Ukraine and the Middle East. Trump has indicated he will cut aid to Kyiv’s battle against the Russian invasion.

New Delhi:

The FBI warned of bomb threats at polling stations in “multiple” US states on Election Day, adding that none were credible but many appeared to originate from Russia.

The statement from the Federal Bureau of Investigation came as authorities in the US state of Georgia said bomb threats had briefly disrupted voting there Tuesday.

The 2024 US presidential campaign has been a particularly volatile one, and security for Election Day had been ramped up to unprecedented levels given concerns over possible civil unrest, election chicanery and violence against poll workers.

“The FBI is aware of bomb threats to polling locations in several states, many of which appear to originate from Russian email domains,” spokeswoman Savannah Syms said in a statement.

“None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far,” she added, urging the public to “remain vigilant.”

Georgia’s secretary of state Brad Raffensperger said the state had also identified the source of bomb threats that briefly disrupted voting at polling places there, “and it was from Russia.”

He did not elaborate. An election official in Georgia’s Fulton County said polling places were briefly closed as the threats were investigated.

With Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump deadlocked at the climax of the 2024 race, authorities are keen to reassure jittery Americans that their votes are secure. But they are also bolstering physical security for election operations nationwide.

Runbeck Election Services, which provides security technology for poll operations, confirmed to AFP Monday it had ordered some 1,000 panic buttons for clients that include election facilities and their workers.

The FBI has set up a national election command post in Washington to monitor threats 24 hours a day through election week, and security has been bolstered at many of the nearly 100,000 US polling stations.

The states of Oregon, Washington and Nevada have activated the National Guard — and the Pentagon says at least 17 states have placed a total of 600 National Guard troops on standby if needed.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Reproductive rights activists demonstrate in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on Monday. File photo
| Photo Credit: AFP

,

In the upcoming US presidential election, the issue of abortion rights is emerging as a significant factor that is influencing Indian American women’s voting preferences.

This demographic group, which is a part of the second-largest immigrant community in the United States, is showing a strong inclination towards supporting candidates who advocate for reproductive rights.

Meeta Damani, an Indian American documentary filmmaker living in the New Jersey area, has been working in the community with a particular focus on women and children.

“It is a crucial issue for both men and women in the Indian American community as well. It is interconnected like if there is a woman and the child is going to be born unhealthy, that is going to affect the entire family. At the end of the day, it is about freedom and one’s choice. I feel the women voters will make their voice very clear,” she said.

Looking at the clarity of thought on this subject among Indian American women, it is not a surprise that abortion and reproductive rights have become a top-tier policy issue in the 2024 election cycle.

Priya, a marketing professional, is also a vocal member of the Indian American diaspora in the New Jersey region. She feels that this shouldn’t even have been an issue.

“Who would have thought that after coming to a first world country like America, abortion rights would even be an issue for women. If it is my body, it should be my choice. As simple as that. As women voters, if you have the opportunity to support a party that wants to keep your rights intact you will absolutely do that,” she said.

In 2022, the Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. The ruling ended the constitutional right to abortion, allowing states to ban or restrict abortion access. There were subsequent restrictive abortion laws in various states.

The potential for further limitations on reproductive rights is making it an important issue in the country among women. The majority of the public disapproved of the decision. Many Democratic-led states have taken action to protect abortion rights, and some have become sanctuaries for people seeking care out of state.

Supreet, an IT professional, says that women have been impacted by this in many ways. She also thinks many employers in the US had to find ways to mitigate the challenges that the women workers faced.

“The good part is that a lot of employers are coming up with policies that support women. So even if the company is in a state where it is illegal, they are giving them the means to go to other states. The good part is that corporate America is supportive of women but the government may or may not be. That is why it is important to look at it seriously. I definitely feel the women voters will support the party that is pro-abortion,” Supreet said.

The Indian American Attitudes Survey (IAAS) conducted a nationally representative online survey of Indian American citizens between September 18 and October 15. It has identified a new, striking gender gap in voting preferences.

According to the survey, 67 per cent of Indian American women intend to vote for Kamala Harris while 53 per cent of men, a significantly smaller share, say they plan to vote for Harris.

When further disaggregated by age, this gender gap appears starkest with younger voters. In the cohort above the age of 40, more than 70 per cent of women and 60 per cent of men plan to vote for Harris.

Sonal Sharma, an immigration lawyer working with a lot of Indian American population, has a word of caution to offer. She feels that while women do feel strongly about the abortion issue, it is not the only thing that matters to others.

“It is a complex issue, despite abortion being so sensitive the polls are 50-50 divided. So, one can see it is not the only issue important to people. We however saw in states where the legislature tried to bring more strict abortion laws, those were rejected. We will have to see what happens,” she said.

The importance of abortion rights for Indian American women has not gone unnoticed by political campaigns. Harris has made abortion rights a central part of her campaign strategy and reproductive rights advocacy groups are actively engaging Indian American voters.

In the United States, there are more than 5.2 million people of Indian origin today. It is the second-largest immigrant group in the United States and has emerged as an important political actor. Women form a very significant subset of this unit and as the election draws near, the abortion rights issue is likely to remain a key factor in mobilising and influencing this important demographic.

As the most turbulent presidential campaign in decades enters its final hours, Americans can be forgiven for wondering: What just happened?

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are separated by the narrowest of margins in polls – which show Tuesday’s election is a coin flip – and by a chasm in their future vision for the world’s premier economic and military power. US voters will either pick their first female, Black and Asian leader – or reappoint a chief executive seeking an unprecedented return to the White House he left in disgrace nearly four years ago.

That’s the cast – and then consider the backdrop. The cycle began in a country still reeling from the once-in-a-century Covid-19 pandemic, when Americans elected Joe Biden as the oldest president in US history, and Trump’s supporters attacked the Capitol to try and reverse his loss. It’s since encompassed the outbreak of major wars in Europe and the Middle East, raising fears the US could get sucked in; a spike in inflation like no American aged under 40 had ever witnessed; and a rollback of federal abortion rights by the Supreme Court.

And even that is just a sliver of the drama and chaos that Americans have experienced during the 2024 campaign itself.

Democrats ditched incumbent president Biden in favor of his deputy — Vice President Harris — without consulting their voters. GOP candidate Trump bulldozed his way through primaries, at times campaigning from the New York courtroom where he was ultimately convicted for paying hush money to an adult film star – and then was shot and injured at a rally.

‘That Was the Craziest’

No wonder so many Americans, from first-time voters to seasoned movers and shakers in the campaign-finance world, are still trying to gather their bearings.

Gideon Stein — an entrepreneur, philanthropist and major Democratic donor — is clear about the turning point. “The debate on June 27,” he says. “That to me was the craziest.”

Back then, Biden was still seeking re-election but struggling to ignite much enthusiasm. Dogged by questions about his fitness for another term, he proposed an early debate against Trump in June. To say the strategy backfired is an understatement. So halting and incoherent was the president’s performance that he could no longer hold back the dam of angst around his age.

“That’s why I got engaged and used my voice as a donor,” says Stein, who was among the group of key Democratic funders who made it clear to the party that they’d withhold donations until Biden was replaced on the ballot. “We were going to continue to invest down ballot, but weren’t going to invest in the presidential because everything we were seeing was that he was going to lose.”

Biden ended his reelection campaign and endorsed Harris as his successor. Looking back, Stein says it was the right move: Democrats have a much better shot at keeping the White House with the vice president atop the ticket. He made good on his promise to the party to donate $3.5 million, disbursing some of it over the past week.

Still, the incident left Democrats with a compressed calendar to introduce Harris to the nation — and a credibility gap to address. Before Biden’s debate performance, party officials had mocked and disputed concerns about his age. “They were telling us he was bench-pressing 350 pounds, doing summersaults,” says Eric Levine, a Republican donor who voted for Trump and raised about $1.8 million for down ballot races.

‘Coming After You’

Levine agrees that the president’s withdrawal is the most memorable moment of 2024 – “that, and the assassination attempt.”

The moment of maximum drama on the GOP side arrived on July 13, when a bullet grazed Trump’s ear at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing an attendee. Photos showed a bloodstained ex-president defiantly pumping his fist.

For Eric Marks, a 57-year-old from Kalamazoo, Michigan, that was the most impactful incident of the election. “If the people coming after you know that you’re standing up for the truth and they have something to hide, they’re going to do whatever they can do to silence you,” he says. US officials have said the shooter was 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed by the Secret Service.

In their truncated three-month-long contest, Trump and Harris have offered sharply different programs for the country that clarify the high stakes.

On the economy, Harris has focused on the so-called sandwich generation, those caught between raising kids and caring for elderly parents. She’s promised to provide as much as $25,000 in down-payment assistance for first-time homebuyers, and to expand the child tax credit.

Trump says he’ll reduce the corporate tax rate and abolish taxes on Social Security and overtime pay, among other plans. He’s also vowed to crack down on undocumented migrants by deporting millions of them.

These messages are getting amplified in advertising campaigns blitzing the country, and especially the handful of states that will likely be decisive: Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia. A record $15.9 billion will be spent on federal elections, including House and Senate races, according to OpenSecrets.

Chris Martin, a 38-year-old Black man in Sandy Springs, Georgia — a northern suburb of Atlanta – admits to election fatigue. Every other commercial is political, voters are constantly hammered by text messages from the campaigns, and it’s getting a bit much.

“It’s this whole us versus them thing going on, and I’m sick of it,” says Martin, who highlighted Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were eating pets. “It’s nasty stuff, and it’s along the lines of race and nationality. The stuff they say about immigrants, it’s just awful.”

Internationally, the Democratic candidate has espoused a similar position to Biden, endorsing the US role in NATO and support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion. She’s had to contend with a schism within the Democratic party driven by Israel’s war in Gaza, which is pressuring Harris’ support in Michigan, a swing state with a large Arab-American population. Opposition to the war consumed the headlines last spring as student protests erupted on college campuses across the US.

Trump, in a continuation of his first-term stance, has questioned America’s global security commitments. He’s vowed to resume his trade war with China, by ramping up tariffs on the US’s closest economic competitor, and threatens a broad 10% duty on other countries too.

‘Never as Dramatic’

The global backdrop is contributing to election tensions on both sides, according to Rocky Raczkowski, a Republican and former member of the Michigan House of Representatives. “There is economic unease and world turmoil unease with what’s happening with Ukraine, Israel and Iran,” he says. “There is also malaise among Democrats, especially progressives, that the system isn’t working for them. And there is anger among Republican voters who think the system is selling us down the road to other countries.”

Whether it’s driven by events at home or abroad, angst around the vote is widespread. An Oct. 31 AP-NORC Center poll found seven in ten Americans are either anxious or frustrated with the 2024 presidential campaign – an even higher share than in the pandemic-disrupted election of 2020.

Taryn Carthers is one of them. A 21-year-old retail worker who lives northwest of Atlanta, she hasn’t followed many campaigns —- but says this one is the craziest.

“I remember being in elementary school when Obama and Romney were running for office,” she says. “It was never as dramatic as what we are dealing with now.” Carthers has gone from being demoralized when Biden led the Democratic ticket, to reinvigorated by the ascent of Harris – and now she says she’s despondent again over all the stress. “I’m excited to vote, but also very excited for this election season to be over.”

In the campaign’s last week, both sides have been trying to capitalize on missteps from their opponents in order to sway remaining undecided voters who could tilt the outcome.

Trump held a rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on Oct. 27, where his allies made racist and misogynistic remarks — including calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” — that Democrats pounced on. But a presidential gaffe during a subsequent attempt to capitalize on the incident, in which Biden appeared to describe Trump’s supporters as garbage, allowed Republicans an outrage cycle of their own. Even as Biden insisted he was only referring to the comedian who cast the original insult, Trump took to the campaign trail in a garbage truck.

‘Alone With Our Thoughts’

Trump has also sought to keep the embers of his 2020 revolt burning, maintaining without evidence that the vote that year was fraudulent – and potentially sowing distrust in the soon-to-be-revealed 2024 results. States have bolstered election protocols to guard against disruptions.

The GOP contender, ever superstitious, is scheduled to wrap up his campaign in Grand Rapids, Michigan for the third straight cycle – before heading to Florida to await the count. Harris will hold a rally on the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum, made famous by the movie “Rocky,” and then return to Washington. She’ll spend election night at her alma mater Howard University.

In Madison, Wisconsin, Debra Zillmer has hit on her own election strategy: get out of town. The 70-year-old, a retired orthopedic surgeon who’s voting for Harris, has taken to traveling with her husband in their recreational vehicle to escape from the swing state. Her motive will likely resonate with many Americans, in the final days of a disorienting campaign.

“We just have to get out of there, be alone with our thoughts, not be watching the news all the time,” Zillmer says. “I find it very unsettling.”