Donald Trump has declared victory in the US election as he addressed jubilant supporters in Florida – but votes in key states are still being counted.

Speaking at West Palm Beach, he told crowds: “Look what happened – is this crazy?” – adding: “I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honour of being elected your 47th president.

“I will fight for you and your family and your future, every single day I will be fighting for you with every breath in my body.”

He told the crowd it was a “magnificent victory for the American people” while claiming he had also won the popular vote, something he failed to secure during his 2016 and 2020 presidential bids.

“Winning the popular vote was very nice, it’s a great feeling of love,” he said.

The 78-year-old also told his supporters that “this will truly be the golden age of America”.

Mr Trump has won in the key battleground states of Georgia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina – and is leading in several others – narrowing Kamala Harris’s path to victory significantly.

According to Sky News’s US partner network NBC, Mr Trump, who has been bidding for a second term in the White House following his win in 2016 against Hillary Clinton, is now just four electoral votes away from a projected win.

While the Republican Party’s win of the Senate has been confirmed, the House is still up for grabs.

“We overcame obstacles that no one thought possible,” Mr Trump said as family, including “my beautiful wife Melania” and his “amazing” children, stood next to him.

“We’re going to help our country heal, we have a country that needs help and it needs help very badly,” he said while doubling down on his promise to crack down on illegal immigration.

Mr Trump then seemed to refer to an attempted assassination on him at a rally in Pennsylvania back in July as he said: “Many people have told me that god has spared my life for a reason and that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness and now we are going to fulfill that mission together.”

US election latest: Trump projected key wins

Ms Harris will now not address her supporters until later on Wednesday, her campaign chair has said.

The vice president had been scheduled to make a speech at her alma mater, Howard University, after the polls closed, but the mood grew sombre as results began to trickle in.

Cedric Richmond, co-chair of the Harris campaign, told the crowds at the university: “We will continue overnight to fight to make sure, every vote is counted, that every voice has spoken.

“So you won’t hear from the vice president tonight but you will hear from her tomorrow. She will be back here tomorrow.”

The Howard community had been preparing for a historic night – Ms Harris would become the first woman, black woman and South Asian American to assume the presidency, if elected.

But in the 21 remaining states where more than 80% of the vote has been counted, there has been a swing towards Mr Trump, NBC News reports.

In seven of them, the swing is less than one point.

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The largest swings – of more than five points – are in New Jersey and Florida.

No other state has a swing higher than three points.

World reacts to looming Trump victory

World leaders have started reacting to Mr Trump’s speech, with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer tweeting: “Congratulations president-elect Trump on your historic election victory.

“I look forward to working with you in the years ahead,” he said.

“As the closest of allies, we stand shoulder-to-shoulder in defence of our shared values of freedom, democracy and enterprise.

“From growth and security to innovation and tech, I know that the UK-US special relationship will continue to prosper on both sides of the Atlantic for years to come.”

Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK and a longtime supporter of Mr Trump, tweeted: “He’s done it again. The most incredible political comeback of our lifetime.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will have been closely watching the election as he seeks continued support from the US over his war against the Hamas militant group in Gaza, said on X: “Congratulations on history’s greatest comeback!”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, another leader who has been counting on renewed US support as he seeks to fend of Russia’s full-scale invasion of his country, also congratulated Mr Trump over his looming victory, which he described as “impressive”.

Mr Zelenskyy said on X he appreciated Mr Trump’s “commitment to the ‘peace through strength’ approach” to global affairs and the principle could “bring just peace in Ukraine closer”.

The Republican Party has made gains in the Senate and secured a majority for the first time in four years.

A third of the Senate’s 100 seats were up for grabs at this year’s elections, with 51 required for a majority.

The Senate, similar to the House of Lords in the UK but is elected, is made up of two senators for each state.

The Democrats have been in control of the upper house of Congress for the last four years.

US election latest: Trump addressing ‘jubilant’ supporters

But the Republicans have wrestled control after making gains in elections overnight.

With eight seats yet to be declared, the Republicans have 51 seats in the Senate and the Democrats have 40.

Independent candidate Bernie Sanders, who sits with the Democratic caucus, has been projected to win a fourth term representing Vermont.

Among the Republicans’ gains were Trump-backed Bernie Moreno, who flipped a seat in Ohio which had been held by the Democrats since 2007.

Another gain was in West Virginia where Jim Justice won a seat that was left vacant after independent senator and former Democrat Joe Manchin’s retirement.

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives, the lower house, are also up for grabs.

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The Republicans’ gains in the Senate come as Donald Trump has been projected to win several key battleground states in the race to the White House, closing in on a second presidential term.

He declared victory in a speech to supporters in Florida, while Kamala Harris will not speak until later on Wednesday.

Donald Trump can be president again without winning any more battlegrounds.

Victories for Mr Trump in the key states of Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina – all three largest battlegrounds – leave him needing just four electoral college votes to be president-elect.

He can achieve this with a win in Alaska, usually safe Republican, and the one electoral vote in Maine that voted for him in the last two elections. The battleground states of Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan are also outstanding.

Kamala Harris is yet to win a single one of the eight battleground states.

The exit poll tells a story of America’s increasing division on party lines and the biggest issues facing the country, but slightly less so in terms of demographic indicators like race and age.

Black and Latino voters look to have backed the Republicans in higher numbers than at other recent elections, while white voters and older voters – particularly women – have moved closer to the Democrats.

The results in the remaining battlegrounds, plus a handful of other states are still outstanding.

Standings in states still to be declared

Results from counties that have finished voting skew heavily towards Mr Trump, however – the vote so far has swung towards him in 90% of counties that have counted more than 95% of their votes.

So far we know of 26 counties which have flipped between parties from their 2020 result. Twenty-three of these have favoured Mr Trump. Eight of these counties had voted Democrat at every election since at least 2000.

What does the exit poll tell us?

The election found the American public in an unforgiving mood.

The exit poll, carried out by Sky’s US partner NBC News, points towards a country that is dissatisfied with its current situation, although still very much divided on what the most important issues are.

Two-thirds of people consider the condition of the nation’s economy to be not so good or poor.

A remarkable three-quarters of people told the exit poll they felt dissatisfied or angry about the way things are going in the country.

And some 60% expressed disapproval of the Supreme Court, while a similar number of people disapproved of the way Joe Biden is handling his job as president.

Harris voters thought “democracy” was the most important issue behind their vote, while Trump supporters rated the economy and immigration higher. On both sides, only a few people made up their decision in the last month.

The exit poll also tells us that Mr Trump has lost support among some of his most reliable groups. Voters aged over 65 backed the Democrats this year, having favoured Mr Trump at the last two elections. He also lost support among white women and white non-college-educated people.

Harris’s polling lead was also down among some groups that had supported Biden most enthusiastically. There was a massive fall among Latino voters, but also among the youngest voters and women.

In a year in which abortion was also on the ballot in 10 states, these groups in particular were expected to be among Harris’s most solid groups of votes.

How are the abortion votes going?

As well as the election, voters in 10 states were also voting on whether there should be a right to abortion enshrined and protected in the local constitution.

Voters in New York, Maryland and Colorado have voted to establish that right.

Voters in Florida, however, narrowly failed to reach the 60% threshold required to pass the measure, although a majority of people did support the right. It was the only state that needed more than a simple majority to pass.

According to the exit poll, 92% of Democrat voters across the country believed that abortion should be legal, contrasted with 38% of Republicans.

As well as abortion, voters were also at odds with the former president on immigration – 56% of people believed that undocumented immigrants should be offered a chance to apply for legal status.

What about the Senate and the House?

The Democrats have lost control of the Senate. They had a 51/49 majority going into the elections and have lost two seats to Republicans so far, in Ohio and West Virginia.

Defending their majority would always have been difficult this year. The seats that were up were ones the party had won six years previously, at the “blue wave” midterm elections in 2018 – halfway through Trump’s first term.

The Republicans have also made one gain in the House, where they already had a majority. In the result of an electoral college tie, the House will pick the president.

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.