LAST UPDATE | 1 hr ago

WITH MILLIONS OF votes now counted across the United States, Donald Trump is currently in a strong but not unassailable position in the race for the White House.

Vice President Kamala will not make a speech this evening, it has been confirmed, but Trump is likely to speak to his supporters shortly. 

Trump’s vote appears to be up compared to four years ago when he was defeated by President Joe Biden. Vice President Kamala Harris is likely pinning her hopes on a sweep of the former industrial rust belt heartlands of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Trump won those three states when he won the presidency in 2016 and Biden flipped them four years later, creating the so-called ‘Blue Wall’ that would keep the presidency in Democratic hands. 

Harris will now likely have to repeat that trick to win the presidency, with Trump performing strongly in the Sun Belt swing states of Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada.

The first two of swing states has been projected to go to Trump, with all US networks calling North Carolina for the former president and Georgia also being put in his column.

Overall, polling proved to be largely correct that the swing states were impossible to predict ahead of election day. 

To get elected, either candidate needs to reach the magic number of 270 electoral college votes out of the 538 on offer. If the rest of the states go as expected, Harris would reach that number should she win Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. 

The results from these states may not be projected until later into today but the next couple of hours could provide an indication of which way they will go.

As it stands, US based forecasters are attempting to predict how that will go, something that will ultimately decide the presidency. In its live presidential forecast, the New York Times rates Trump’s overall chance of winning the election at 89%. 

Writing before 4am Irish-time, the New York Times Chief Political Analyst Nate Cohn said:

“For the first time tonight, we consider Trump likely to win the presidency. He has an advantage in each of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. To win, Harris would need to sweep all three. There is still a lot of vote left, but in the voting so far, Trump is narrowly but discernibly ahead.”

With the no final result expected tonight, Harris Campaign Co-Chair Cedric Richmond confirmed that Harris would not be making a speech this evening. 

“Thank you for believing in the promise of America. We still have votes to count. We still have states that have not been called yet. We will continue overnight to fight to make sure that every vote is counted, that every voice has spoken,” he told a crowd at Howard University (HU), where her campaign was gathered.

So you won’t hear from the Vice President tonight, but you will hear from her tomorrow. She will be back here tomorrow to address not only the HU family, not only to address her supporters, but to address the nation. So thank you, we believe in you. 

Speaking on NBC News, former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki acknowledged that the short time Harris had to campaign after Biden dropped out is likely to be a discussion point.

“Depending on the outcome and obviously there hasn’t been a race called yet, if this is not a Harris win, that will certainly be part of the discussion. She’s run a campaign over the course of 107 days, that is not something we’ve seen in history and there’ll be lots of questions about exactly that, the timing and the impact of that,” Psaki said. 

With Trump’s performance pointing to a potential win, the dollar surged overnight and bitcoin hit a record high as traders bet on a Trump victory.