Trump live updates: Markets rally, world leaders congratulate president-elect

Vice president-elect JD Vance thanked his wife and Trump on Wednesday morning in his first public comments since the incoming president’s second victory was made official.

“THANK YOU! To my beautiful wife for making it possible to do this. To President Donald J. Trump, for giving me such an opportunity to serve our country at this level,” Vance wrote on X. “And to the American people, for their trust. I will never stop fighting for ALL of you.”

— Gabrielle Fonrouge

Sen. Marco Rubio said the U.S. is funding a “stalemate” war in Ukraine that needs to end after Trump signaled he may reduce his support to Kyiv if elected. 

“In the case of Ukraine, who wants war? What he’s talking about is he wants the war to end. Now as a businessman he’s not going to tell you about his negotiating tactics to bring it to a close but I don’t understand why we would not want a war like that to end,” Rubio told NBC’s Savannah Guthrie in an interview Wednesday morning. 

“I think the Ukrainians have been incredibly brave and strong in standing up to Russia but at the end of the day what we are funding here is a stalemate war and it needs to be brought to a conclusion.” 

–Gabrielle Fonrouge

Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney — who campaigned for Harris in an effort to convince anti-Trump Republicans to vote blue — addressed Trump’s win in a post on X this morning.

“Our nation’s democratic system functioned last night and we have a new President-elect. All Americans are bound, whether we like the outcome or not, to accept the results of our elections,” Cheney said in the post.

“We now have a special responsibility, as citizens of the greatest nation on earth, to do everything we can to support and defend our Constitution, preserve the rule of law, and ensure that our institutions hold over these coming four years,” she wrote.

“Citizens across this country, our courts, members of the press and those serving in our federal, state and local governments must now be the guardrails of democracy.”

– Josephine Rozzelle

Long-time Trump ally Viktor Orban hailed the Republican politician’s return to the White House as a “much needed victory for the world.”

“The biggest comeback in U.S. political history!” he added in a social media post.

As ballots were still being counted early on Wednesday, Orban had published a TV caption showing a Republican lead in a Facebook post that said “on the way to a wonderful win,” according to a Google translation.

Orban, who has maintained close relations with Trump over the years, even assumed a “Make Europe Great Again” tagline when his government took over the rotating presidency of the European Union over the summer — a slogan reminiscent of Trump’s own campaign motto.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Cryptocurrency, banks and prison stocks are moving higher in pre-market trading Wednesday following Trump’s decisive presidential victory.

Shares of Tesla spiked 12% now that the company’s CEO Elon Musk has such a close alliance with the incoming president. Stocks like Coinbase and Robinhood were both up about 12% on bitcoin’s rise while private prison owner Geo Group surged more than 26%. The spike in Geo’s stock comes after Trump promised to take a tougher approach to criminal justice issues, which could be a tailwind for the prison company.

Banks, likely to see favorable deregulation under a second Trump presidency, were also moving higher. Shares of Wells Fargo were up 11% while JP Morgan spiked around 7%.

–Gabrielle Fonrouge

Two key architects of the landmark Paris Agreement warned that Donald Trump’s election victory will stall global efforts to protect the environment.

The 78-year-old, who has called the climate crisis “one of the great scams,” has pledged to ramp up fossil fuel production, pare back outgoing President Joe Biden’s emissions-limiting regulations and pull the country out of the Paris climate accord — again.

Laurence Tubiana, a key figure behind the Paris Agreement, said Trump’s election victory “is a setback for global climate action, but the Paris Agreement has proven resilient and is stronger than any single country’s policies.”

Christiana Figueres, the former United Nations climate chief who oversaw the 2015 Paris summit, said the U.S. election result will be regarded as a “major blow to global climate action.”

Read the whole story.

— Sam Meredith

Trump should learn from the “mistakes” of outgoing President Joe Biden, senior Hamas official Abu Zuhri urged, in comments reported by Reuters.

Under Biden’s administration, the U.S. has staunchly supported Israel and its retaliatory campaign against the Palestinian militant group, after Hamas carried out a terror attack against the Jewish state in October last year.

Washington has nevertheless also urged Israel to moderate its response and to curtail civilian casualties during its military incursion in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Trump has previously called for a quick end to the conflict in the Gaza enclave, as well as to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Trump’s presidential victory “brings a mixed bag of positives and negatives” for the retail industry plus “a large dose of uncertainty,” says GlobalData managing director Neil Saunders.

“The main positive for retail is that President Trump will almost certainly renew the tax cut package he introduced during his first term in 2017, which was due to expire at the end of 2025. This will be broadly helpful to consumer incomes, although retailers should not expect to see a surge in spending as it is about rolling over an existing policy that is already baked into consumer behavior,” the retail analyst said in an emailed note. “The huge downside to retail comes from Trump’s proposals on tariffs.”

If Trump makes good on his promise to raise tariffs on goods made overseas, retailers will bear the brunt of that cost, said Saunders.

“Given the trade between Chinese manufacturers and US retailers, a strict tariff policy would mean retailers initially either taking a massive hit on profits or being forced to put up prices, which would fuel inflation and dampen retail volume growth,” said Saunders. “Over time, supply chains would adjust to a new tariff regime, but this would not happen overnight and would be incredibly disruptive.”

Saunders noted that there’s a “small hope” that Trump’s comments on raising tariffs are more of a negotiating tactic and any eventual changes could be “modest in scope.”

–Gabrielle Fonrouge

Abortion rights ballot measures passed in seven states and failed in three others, more than two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the federal constitutional right to the procedure. 

Amendments to protect abortion access passed in Arizona, Colorado, New York, Maryland, Montana, Missouri and Nevada.

Voters in Missouri cleared the way to undo one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion bans. Similarly in Arizona, voters passed a measure that is expected to overturn the state’s ban on abortions 15 weeks into pregnancy.

But Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota defeated similar constitutional amendments, leaving bans in place.

— Annika Kim Constantino

Markets should brace for “knee-jerk” moves in the short term, as it remains unclear whether Trump’s victory will also be accompanied by a “Red Sweep” — implying a Republican win in both the House and the Senate.

“In our view, the most positive outcome for US equities is a Red Sweep, the most negative outcome for EU equities, in relative terms, is Trump and a divided congress,” they said, flagging that a contested election or any lingering electoral uncertainties had been a foremost concern for investors.

The analysts identified trade tariffs as a “key risk for Europe,” with a higher likelihood of implementation under a Trump administration.

“We thus think that EU equities are likely to continue lagging US equities on a relative basis,” Barclays said.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Shares of Trump Media are up more than 30% premarket as NBC News projects Trump — the company’s majority owner — the winner of the presidential election.

The Truth Social parent company surged above 50% after the close Tuesday but has since pared back those gains. More than 34 million shares have changed hands in premarket trading.

Read the full story here.

Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt says it’s time for the incoming president to make good on his campaign promises, including a “mass deportation operation” on day one of his administration.

“The American people delivered a resounding victory for President Trump, and gives him a mandate to govern as he campaigned, to deliver on the promises that he made, which include, on day one, launching the largest mass deportation operation of illegal immigrants that Kamala Harris has allowed this country,” Leavitt said on Fox News.

While on the campaign trail, Trump frequently spoke about his plans to deport people who he said had entered the country unlawfully.

–Gabrielle Fonrouge

Argentina’s right-wing President Javier Milei congratulated Trump on his “formidable electoral victory” in a social media post on the X platform.

“Now, Make America Great Again. You know that You can count on Argentina to carry out your task. Success and blessings,” Milei said.

Often likened, Trump and Milei enjoy a cordial relationship, with the Republican president previously welcoming the Argentinian leader’s win in the Latin American country’s election last year and urging him to “Make Argentina Great Again” at the time.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Trump’s decisive presidential victory indicates that Black voters no longer vote in a block,” said Jeh Johnson, former Homeland Security Secretary in the Obama Administration.

“We have come to believe over generations that different demographic groups vote as a block because for so often, for so long, the black vote in this country voted in a block,” Johnson said on MSNBC. “90% for Democrats from Johnson all the way to Obama and that is just not true anymore.”

The comments come after Trump managed to break barriers across a wide range of demographics in his victory over Harris, winning over Black and Latino voters that once would have voted blue.

“As different demographic groups become further integrated into our society they start caring about all of the other issues that everyone else does, whether it’s the economy, crime, whether its border security,” said Johnson.

— Gabrielle Fonrouge

Stock futures soared as traders cheered Donald Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 1,335 points, or 3.2%. S&P 500 futures surged 2.3%, while Nasdaq-100 futures advanced 1.7%.

— Fred Imbert

Trump senior advisor Jason Miller says the incoming president “has completely remade the Republican Party to be the party of the working class” following his decisive victory.

“This isn’t the Republican Party of old. President Trump has completely remade the Republican Party to be the party of the working class,” Miller said in an interview with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie. “You think about the teamsters, the union workers, the folks who want to keep the auto industry, but you think about black voters, Latino voters, think about the Arab American voters in Michigan who rallied around President Trump, his win is already starting to show how he can bring that together.”

–Gabrielle Fonrouge

Republican nominee Tim Sheehy defeated incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester in the race for Montana’s Senate seat, NBC News projects.

Sheehy, a businessman and former Navy SEAL, focused his campaign on the economy, border security and gun rights. Tester, a farmer who’s had three terms in the Senate, faced a tough road to victory ahead of the race.

— Gabrielle Fonrouge

Oil prices retreated on Wednesday, after Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris to clinch leadership of the White House.

The Ice Brent contract with January delivery was trading at $74.52 per barrel at 12:10 p.m. London time, down 1.34%. The front-month December contract lost 1.38% to $71 per barrel.

Donald Trump’s election could impact the supply of the world’s largest crude producer, as the Republican politician has previously endorsed policies pledging to fully unleash America’s oil and gas production. The additional supply would exacerbate a picture of already weak demand.

— Ruxandra Iordache

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz extended his congratulations to Donald Trump, after the former U.S. president claimed victory in the latest election to clinch leadership of the White House.

“For a long time, Germany and the US have been working together successfully promoting prosperity and freedom on both sides of the Atlantic. We will continue to do so for the wellbeing of our citizens,” Scholz said on social media platform X.

Europe’s largest economy counted the U.S. as its largest trading partner in the first half of this year, according to Reuters. The two countries are also close allies in the NATO military coalition.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin has so far kept silent on the latest result of the U.S. election.

“I am not aware of the president’s plans to congratulate Trump on his election,” Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday, according to Google-translated comments from state news agency Tass.

“Let’s not forget that we are talking about an unfriendly country that is directly and indirectly involved in a war against our state,” he added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump appeared to enjoy cordial relations during the latter’s U.S. 2017-2021 presidency. The relationship was mired in controversy after allegations of collusion between Trump’s then presidential campaign team and Russia, which was accused of meddling in the 2016 election.

Read the whole story.

— Holly Ellyatt

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his congratulations to both Donald and Melania Trump.

“Congratulations on history’s greatest comeback! 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 said.

“This is a huge victory!” he added.

Israel is a close U.S. ally in the Middle East and has benefitted from military aid from Washington during its conflict with Palestinian militant group Hamas and other Iranian proxies, including neighbor Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Read the whole story.

— Sam Meredith and Ruxandra Iordache