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Trump wins presidency for second time, completing improbable comeback

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Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives at a campaign rally Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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Former President Trump is projected to win the presidency, securing a second term nearly four years after he left Washington under a cloud of ignominy and with an uncertain political future, according to Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ).

DDHQ made the call after declaring Trump the projected winner of Pennsylvania and Alaska, which got him to exactly 270 electoral votes.

Trump defeated Vice President Harris in an election that saw a number of unexpected developments: A criminal trial involving Trump during the campaign, two assassination attempts against the former president and a change atop the Democratic ticket after President Biden dropped out of the race.

He becomes the first president in more than 120 years to lose the White House, and then to come back and win it again, after President Grover Cleveland in 1892.

Trump secured the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House following a roughly 100-day sprint of a campaign between him and Harris, with polling in seven key battleground states showing very little separation between the two candidates right up until Election Day.

The former president ultimately won a convincing victory, flipping Georgia back into his column, holding North Carolina and shattering the “blue wall.” He was projected to narrowly win the popular vote, something he failed to do in 2016 and that Republicans have only done once since 1992.

The former president and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), capitalized on voter discontent with higher costs, a surge in migration at the southern border and instability abroad during the Biden administration to pitch voters on a return to his policies.

Exit polls showed Trump making huge gains with Latino voters, bolstering his margins in rural areas and running nearly even with Harris among young men, a demographic Trump’s campaign aggressively courted.

Trump has pledged to carry out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history, to extend the tax cuts he signed into law in 2017, to impose universal tariffs on foreign imports, to roll back protections for transgender youth, to shut down the Education Department and to curb environmental regulations. He has also signaled he will seek to stock his administration with loyalists.

Trump overcame what was expected to be a huge deficit with female voters. Harris leaned into the issue of abortion rights after three of Trump’s picks for the Supreme Court joined other conservatives in overturning the Roe v. Wade decision in 2022. This was the first presidential election to take place since the end of Roe.

The election of Trump could give the GOP president a chance to strengthen the conservative grip on the high court, as Republicans regained the majority in the Senate.

Trump narrowly won the White House in 2016, but lost his reelection bid in 2020. He spent the weeks after that election pushing unproven claims of widespread fraud, culminating in a violent attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, where his supporters tried to stop the certification of Biden’s victory.

He was indicted on federal charges in Washington, D.C., in 2023 over his efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election. But Trump has signaled he will swiftly move to fire special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the matter, kneecapping a major legal case against him.

Trump’s rhetoric and conduct during his first term has drawn scrutiny from several former Cabinet officials and top aides, including some who compared him to an authoritarian. He was indicted in four separate jurisdictions in 2023 and was convicted in New York City on 34 felony counts in May. He was impeached twice during his first term and left office with a favorability rating below 40 percent. And he left Washington in 2021 without attending his successor’s inauguration.

A number of politicians and pundits all but declared him politically dead, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) lashing out at Trump in a February 2021 speech from the Senate floor. McConnell did not vote to convict Trump in his impeachment trial over the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, however.

If Trump had been convicted, it could have ended his political career and prevented him from running for the White House again. Instead, he now stands to further shift the GOP in his image, while McConnell’s position as Senate leader will end in January.

In a sign of how wrong some were in predicting Trump’s political demise, he coasted to the GOP nomination thanks to a loyal base of supporters, and he appeared to be on a glide path to the presidency in July, when he survived an assassination attempt, rallied the full force of the party behind him at the GOP convention and led Biden in the polls.

But Biden dropped out later that month and was replaced by Harris, who galvanized Democratic voters and raised record sums of money. Trump struggled initially to respond to the change in opponent, and his rocky performance at a September debate further frustrated Republicans as the race tightened.

Trump gained in the polls in the closing weeks of the campaign, however, showing strength with Black and Latino voters. Both are key voting blocs that helped propel him to victory.

His campaign relied on a previously untested strategy of partnering with outside groups to reach voters in battleground states, a method that managed to overcome the stronger infrastructure of the Harris campaign.

At 78, Trump is the oldest person in the country’s history to be elected president, slightly older than Biden was in 2020. He has declined to release detailed medical records despite previously saying he would have no problem doing so.

Trump will become just the second president in the nation’s history to serve two nonconsecutive terms, but will be term limited by the 22nd Amendment, meaning he cannot seek reelection in 2028.

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House Approves 2025-2027 MTEF

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House Approves 2025-2027 MTEF
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The House of Representatives has passed the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper for 2025 to 2027 as submitted by President Bola Tinubu.

This followed the consideration and approval of the recommendations of the Joint Committee on Finance and National Planning which laid its report at Wednesday’s plenary.

The House adopted the projected oil benchmark prices pegged at 75 dollars per barrel for 2025, as well as 76.2 dollars and 75.3 dollars per barrel for 2026 and 2027.

Domestic Crude Oil Production Projections for 2025 is put at 2.06 million barrels per day representing a significant increase from 1.78 million barrels per day in the current year.

GDP growth rate is projected at 4.6, 4.4 and 5.5 percent for 2025 to 2027, respectively, while the projected exchange rate is pegged at 1,400 Naira to the US Dollar for years 2025, 2026 and 2027

The MTEF projections aim towards a realistic and sustainable foundation for Nigeria’s budget planning over the next three years.

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President Bola Tinubu has departed Abuja for Paris on a state visit in honour of an invitation from President Emmanuel Macron.

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President Bola Tinubu has departed Abuja for Paris on a state visit in honour of an invitation from President Emmanuel Macron.
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The president is on the trip alongside first lady, Oluremi.

They were seen off by top government functionaries led by secretary to the government of the federation, George Akume, chief of staff, Femi Gbajabiamila.

The presidential zero-one-one air plane took off at about twenty minutes past eleven this Wednesday morning.

A statement by the presidential adviser on information and strategy, Bayo Onanuga reveals that, the Nigerian leader’s three-day visit, which will focus on strengthening political, economic, and cultural relations and establishing more opportunities for partnership, promises significant benefits for Nigeria.

President Tinubu and his wife, are expected to be received on Thursday at the French military museum, Les Invalides and Palais de l’Élysée, by the host president, Macron and his spouse, Brigitte, for initial ceremonies that will dovetail into bilateral meetings.

The two presidents are also to harmonise positions on stimulating more interest in exchange programmes that focus on skill development for youths and improving their competencies in automation, entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership.

Both leaders will witness a session by the France-Nigeria Business Council, which oversees private sector participation in economic development.

Wife of the host president, Brigitte and Nigeria’s First Lady are also scheduled to discuss the Renewed Hope Initiative and the interest for empowering women, children, and the most vulnerable in Nigeria.

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PRESIDENT BOLA TINUBU APPOINTS JAMI’U ABIOLA AS SSA ON LINGUISTICS & FOREIGN MATTERS

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PRESIDENT BOLA TINUBU APPOINTS JAMI’U ABIOLA AS SSA ON LINGUISTICS & FOREIGN MATTERS
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PRESIDENT BOLA TINUBU APPOINTS JAMI’U ABIOLA AS SSA ON LINGUISTICS & FOREIGN MATTERS

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the appointment of Jami’u Abiola as the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Linguistics and Foreign Matters.

A statement by Segun Imohiosen, Director, Information & Public Relations Office the
Secretary to the Government of
the Federation says the appointment takes effect from 14th of this month. It adds that the appointment is in line with the provisions of the Certain Political and Judicial Office Holders (Salaries and Allowances, etc) Act 2008, as amended.

It notes that until the appointment, Jami’u served as the Special Assistant to the President on Special Duties in the Office of the Vice President.

President Tinubu tasks the appointee to work closely with the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs and bring his wealth of experience to bear in his new assignment.

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