The former president is set to be sentenced on 11 July – days before the start of the Republican National Convention on 15 July where Trump is expected to be formally nominated for president.
The verdicts plunge the country into unexplored territory ahead of the election on 5 November as opinion polls show Trump and Joe Biden locked in a tight race for the White House.
Trump faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison, though others convicted of the same crime often receive shorter sentences, fines or probation.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Joe Biden said in a statement: “No one is above the law.”
“Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain,” said Michael Tyler, the Biden-Harris campaign’s communications director.
“The threat Trump poses to our democracy has never been greater. He is running an increasingly unhinged campaign of revenge and retribution, pledging to be a dictator ‘on day one’ and calling for our Constitution to be ‘terminated’ so he can regain and keep power,” he added.
“A second Trump term means chaos, ripping away Americans’ freedoms and fomenting political violence – and the American people will reject it this November.”
Image: Trump was found guilty of all 34 counts against him
Alvin Bragg, the New York district attorney who brought the case against Trump, said in a press conference after the verdicts that his team “followed the facts and the law without fear or favour”.
He thanked the NYPD, court staff and the jury, saying the latter was “careful and attentive”.
“I feel a deep gratitude to work alongside them to be a part of this system,” he said.
“While this defendant may be unlike any other in American history, we arrived at this trial and ultimately today at this verdict, in the same manner as every other case,” Mr Bragg added.
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1:39
Trump calls guilty verdicts ‘a disgrace’
Meanwhile, Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer and a key witness in the trial, said: “Today is an important day for accountability and the rule of law.
“While it has been a difficult journey for me and my family, the truth always matters.”
He also posted on X celebrating the verdicts.
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3:42
How hush money trial unfolded
The case against Trump
Trump was at the centre of a scheme to cover up “hush money” payments to buy the silence of a porn star in the days before the 2016 election.
When revelations by Stormy Daniels of a sexual liaison with Trump threatened to upend his presidential campaign, he directed his lawyer to pay her $130,000 (£102,000) to keep her quiet.
The payment buried the story, and Trump was later elected to be the 45th president of the United States.
Trump watched the jurors dispassionately as they were polled to confirm the guilty verdict. They had deliberated for nine-and-a-half hours.
Judge Juan Merchan thanked the jurors for their service, saying: “Nobody can make you do anything you don’t want to do. The choice is yours.” Jurors are now free to speak about the trial.
Both supporters and protesters gathered outside and could be heard in the hallway on the 15th floor of the courthouse, where the case had been heard.
Image: Anti-Trump demonstrators hold placards outside the court. Pic: Reuters
The five-week trial in the Manhattan Criminal Court heard how the backdrop to the crime was a scandal in the Trump campaign a month before the 2016 election.
A video tape from the TV show Access Hollywood was made public, in which Trump was caught on a microphone talking in lewd terms about groping women (“When you’re a star they let you do it, grab them by the p***y. You can do anything.”)
The trial heard how it was viewed as a “crisis” within Team Trump and that the campaign was soon facing another.
Ms Daniels, an adult film actor, claimed she had a sexual encounter with Trump in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, in 2006.
Fast-forward 10 years and, as he ran for office, she was hawking her story.
The details, as heard in this trial, were that she had met Trump at a golf tournament, and he had invited her to dinner.
Image: Stormy Daniels in Manhattan in 2018. Pic: AP
She arrived at his hotel suite to find him dressed in satin pyjamas, until she asked him to change.
At one point, he produced a magazine, and she told the court she spanked him “right on the butt”.
Later, she emerged from the bathroom to find him lying on the bed in a T-shirt and boxer shorts, and they ended up having sex.
Trump denies the liaison took place.
‘Catch and kill’
Her plan to sell her story was communicated to Trump by David Pecker, former publisher of the National Enquirer magazine.
He was a friend of Trump and operated a “catch and kill” scheme on his behalf, to catch negative stories and kill them before they could be published.
He’d already paid $150,000 (£117,000) to silence Karen McDougal, a Playboy model with a story of a 10-month affair with Trump.
Image: David Pecker promised to stop negative stories about Trump being published. Pic: Reuters
Trump also denies that affair ever took place.
Mr Pecker told the court he’d attended a meeting at Trump Tower, New York, in August 2015 with Trump and Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer and fixer.
At the meeting, Mr Pecker told Trump he’d be his “eyes and ears”.
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Michael Cohen testified that, upon learning that Ms Daniels planned to sell her story, Trump told him: “This is a disaster, a total disaster. Women are going to hate me.
“This is really a disaster. Women will hate me. Guys, they think it’s cool. But this is going to be a disaster for the campaign.”
Image: Michael Cohen said he paid the hush money at Trump’s direction. Pic: Reuters
Subsequently, Cohen paid Ms Daniels $130,000 (£102,000) to buy and bury the story.
Critically, he testified that he did so at Trump’s direction, placing the former president at the heart of the conspiracy.
Paying hush money isn’t illegal – the crime was the way in which Trump reimbursed his ‘Mr Fix-It’ and the reason the money was paid.
After Trump was elected president, he repaid Cohen $420,000 (£329,000) which accounted for the $130,000 (£102,000) and other payments and bonuses, “grossed up” to account for tax liability.
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0:56
What happens next for Donald Trump?
The repayment was made in a series of cheques, which were recorded as legal expenses.
That was the crime – the falsification of business records, aggravated by the reason for it – the effort to conceal from voters a negative story that could have harmed Trump’s election chances.
In the words of the prosecution, it was “a planned, coordinated, long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election”.
Global financial markets gave a clear vote of no-confidence in President Trump’s economic policy.
The damage it will do is obvious: costs for companies will rise, hitting their earnings.
The consequences will ripple throughout the global economy, with economists now raising their expectations for a recession, not only in the US, but across the world.
While the UK’s FTSE 100 closed down 1.55% and the continent’s STOXX Europe 600 index was down 2.67% as of 5.30pm, it was American traders who were hit the most.
All three of the US’s major markets opened to sharp losses on Thursday morning.
Image: The S&P 500 is set for its worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. File pic: AP
By 8.30pm UK time (3.30pm EST), The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3.7%, the S&P 500 opened with a drop of 4.4%, and the Nasdaq composite was down 5.6%.
Compared to their values when Donald Trump was inaugurated, the three markets were down around 5.6%, 8.7% and 14.4%, respectively, according to LSEG.
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Worst one-day losses since COVID
As Wall Street trading ended at 9pm in the UK, two indexes had suffered their worst one-day losses since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The S&P 500 fell 4.85%, the Nasdaq dropped 6%, and the Dow Jones fell 4%.
It marks Nasdaq’s biggest daily percentage drop since March 2020 at the start of COVID, and the largest drop for the Dow Jones since June 2020.
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5:07
The latest numbers on tariffs
‘Trust in President Trump’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN earlier in the day that Mr Trump was “doubling down on his proven economic formula from his first term”.
“To anyone on Wall Street this morning, I would say trust in President Trump,” she told the broadcaster, adding: “This is indeed a national emergency… and it’s about time we have a president who actually does something about it.”
Later, the US president told reporters as he left the White House that “I think it’s going very well,” adding: “The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom.”
He later said on Air Force One that the UK is “happy” with its tariff – the lowest possible levy of 10% – and added he would be open to negotiations if other countries “offer something phenomenal”.
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3:27
How is the world reacting to Trump’s tariffs?
Economist warns of ‘spiral of doom’
The turbulence in the markets from Mr Trump’s tariffs “just left everybody in shock”, Garrett Melson, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions in Boston, told Reuters.
He added that the economy could go into recession as a result, saying that “a lot of the pain, will probably most acutely be felt in the US and that certainly would weigh on broader global growth as well”.
Meanwhile, chief investment officer at St James’s Place Justin Onuekwusi said that international retaliation is likely, even as “it’s clear countries will think about how to retaliate in a politically astute way”.
He warned: “Significant retaliation could lead to a tariff ‘spiral of doom’ that could be the growth shock that drags us into recession.”
It comes as the UK government published a long list of US products that could be subject to reciprocal tariffs – including golf clubs and golf balls.
Running to more than 400 pages, the list is part of a four-week-long consultation with British businesses and suggests whiskey, jeans, livestock, and chemical components.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Thursday that the US president had launched a “new era” for global trade and that the UK will respond with “cool and calm heads”.
It also comes as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a 25% tariff on all American-imported vehicles that are not compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal.
He added: “The 80-year period when the United States embraced the mantle of global economic leadership, when it forged alliances rooted in trust and mutual respect and championed the free and open exchange of goods and services, is over. This is a tragedy.”
Tanking stock markets, collapsing world orders, devastating trade wars; economists with their hair ablaze are scrambling to keep up.
But as we try to make sense of Donald Trumps’s tariff tsunami, economic theory only goes so far. In the end this surely is about something more primal.
Power.
Understanding that may be crucial to how the world responds.
Yes, economics helps explain the impact. The world’s economy has after all shifted on its axis, the way it’s been run for decades turned on its head.
Instead of driving world trade, America is creating a trade war. We will all feel the impact.
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0:58
PM will ‘fight’ for deal with US
Donald Trump says he is settling scores, righting wrongs. America has been raped, looted and pillaged by the world trading system.
More from US
But don’t be distracted by the hyperbole – and if you think this is about economics alone, you may be missing the point.
Above all, tariffs give Donald Trump power. They strike fear into allies and enemies, from governments to corporations.
This is a president who runs his presidency like a medieval emperor or mafia don.
It is one reason why since his election we have seen what one statesman called a conga line of sycophants make their way to the White House, from world leaders to titans of industry.
The conga line will grow longer as they now redouble their efforts hoping to special treatment from Trump’s tariffs. Sir Keir Starmer among them.
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President Trump’s using similar tactics at home, deploying presidential power to extract concessions and deter dissent in corporate America, academia and the US media. Those who offer favours are spared punishment.
His critics say he seeks a form power for the executive or presidential branch of government that the founding fathers deliberately sought to prevent.
Whether or not that is true, the same playbook of divide and rule through intimidation can now be applied internationally. Thanks to tariffs
Each country will seek exceptions but on Trump’s terms. Those who retaliate may meet escalation.
This is the unforgiving calculus for governments including our own plotting their next moves.
The temptation will be to give Trump whatever he wants to spare their economies, but there is a jeopardy that compounds the longer this goes on.
Image: Could America’s traditional allies turn to China? Pic: AP
Malcolm Turnbull, the former Australian prime minister who coined the conga line comparison, put it this way: “Pretty much all the international leaders I have seen that have sucked up to Trump have been run over. The reality is if you suck up to bullies, whether it’s global affairs or in the playground, you just get more bullying.”
Trading partners may be able to mitigate the impact of these tariffs through negotiation, but that may only encourage this unorthodox president to demand ever more?
Ultimately the world will need a more reliable superpower than that.
In the hands of such a president, America cannot be counted on.
When it comes to security, stability and prosperity, allies will need to fend for themselves.
And they will need new friends. If Washington can’t be relied on, Beijing beckons.
America First will, more and more, mean America on its own.