US President Joe Biden is expected to address the nation this afternoon after Donald Trump was elected as his successor in an extraordinary political comeback.

Mr Biden, who was replaced by vice president Kamala Harris as the Democrats’ presidential candidate over concerns about his mental fitness, will speak at 4pm (UK time), the White House said on Thursday.

He has already issued a statement in which he said Ms Harris “stepped up and led a historic campaign” that “embodied what’s possible when guided by a strong moral compass and a clear vision for a nation”.

US election latest: Trump to select team in days

But later today will be the first time the country will hear from the president in person.

Mr Biden called Mr Trump after his emphatic victory in the US presidential election on Wednesday.

He has also invited the man he ousted from the White House four years ago to an Oval Office meeting to prepare to return the keys.

The president and president-elect will get together in the coming weeks as the administrations begin the process of changing leader.

Ms Harris called Mr Trump to concede the election and to congratulate him last night, and told her supporters in a speech in Washington she was “proud of the race we ran” but “we must accept the result”.

Mr Trump, who has described his return to power as the start of a “golden age of America”, has been keeping a low profile after addressing supporters in Florida yesterday morning to declare victory.

The 78-year-old made history as the first defeated president in over a century to return to the Oval Office – and the first convicted criminal to win the presidency.

He is also facing other criminal and civil cases.

Experts say his election victory will essentially end the criminal cases brought against him, at least for the time he occupies the White House.

The former president refused to accept defeat four years ago, sparked a violent insurrection at the US Capitol, was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts.

The property mogul and former reality star told his supporters at his election party in Florida: “People told me that God spared me for a reason.”

He added: “This is a magnificent victory for the American people that will allow us to ‘make America great again’.”

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Against the expectations of most polls and pundits, Mr Trump surpassed 270 Electoral College votes and clinched a second term in the White House with crucial wins in five battleground states: North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

He is also leading in Arizona and Nevada (which are yet to called), according to Sky’s US partner NBC News, and remains on course to claim all seven swing states.

Mr Trump spent his first day as president-elect receiving congratulatory phone calls from world leaders – and will now begin the process of choosing who will be in his administration for his second stint in the White House.

He may opt to dramatically transform US foreign and domestic policy.

Mr Trump has previously said he would end Russia’s war in Ukraine if he returned to office.

He has also long criticised NATO, threatening to pull the US from the alliance.

On Thursday, NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte warned the strengthening ties between Russia and North Korea are not only a threat to European security, but also for the United States.

“I look forward to a sit down with Donald Trump to discuss how we face these threats collectively,” he said.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said she was looking forward to working with Mr Trump again to strengthen the transatlantic bond.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet commented on the outcome of US election.

However, contact between him and Mr Trump before the 20 January inauguration has not been ruled out, the Russian Interfax news agency cited the Kremlin as saying.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged Mr Trump’s win but said he had no information on whether Mr Putin planned to congratulate him.

He underlined that Russia still sees the US as an “unfriendly” country due to its support for Ukraine.

Donald Trump is preparing to pick his top team after pulling off a stunning comeback to return to the White House.

If his first term as president is anything to go by, some of those jobs could go to members of his large and in most cases politically-inexperienced family.

The president-elect has five children from three marriages – with his three sons all reported to have contributed to his 2024 campaign in some way.

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In June 2023, Mr Trump said he wouldn’t want his children to serve in a second administration because “it’s too painful for the family”.

However, his critics might say that it wouldn’t be the first time he has said one thing before going on to do another.

Here we take a look at the incoming president’s family and how they might feature in the Trump White House 2.0.

Donald Trump Jr

Often nicknamed Don Jr, Mr Trump’s eldest son has become much more involved in his father’s political career than he was during his time in office between 2017 and 2021.

The 46-year-old took up a role as an adviser when his father began considering a third campaign for the White House after losing to Joe Biden in 2020.

He is said to have been helping to make sure his father understands his core voters, with a Trump aide telling CNN in 2021: “Don has the pulse of the base and knows where the energy of the party is, so he’s sort of the go-to person now on a lot of political things.”

Don Jr also advocated for incoming vice president JD Vance to become Mr Trump’s running mate in the 2024 election.

Meanwhile, his podcast Triggered is said to have become influential among his father’s supporters.

It would therefore perhaps be unsurprising if Don Jr, one of the president-elect’s three children from his first marriage to Ivana Trump, lands a relatively senior role in the next White House administration.

Eric Trump

Much like his brother, Eric frequently made appearances during his father’s 2024 election campaign.

Addressing a rally in Pennsylvania in October, three months after the assassination attempt on his father, Eric shouted: “Fight! Fight! Fight! They tried to smear us, they tried to bankrupt us, they came after us, they impeached him twice … then, guys, they tried to kill him.”

While his brother focuses on understanding voters, Eric is said to be more aligned with the Republican Party machinery.

His wife Lara Trump is the co-chair of the Republican National Committee.

Eric is also executive vice president of the Trump Organization – which serves as the holding company for all of his father’s business ventures and investments.

Clearly trusted by his father, the 40-year-old, who is the president-elect’s second child from his marriage to Ivana Trump, could also secure a role in the next White House.

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Ivanka Trump

One of the incoming president’s two daughters, Ivanka and her partner Jared Kushner were senior advisors in the first Trump administration.

However in November 2022, Ivanka announced she would be stepping back from politics.

Her appearance alongside her father at Palm Beach as he declared victory in the election on Wednesday was her first of the campaign.

It appears unlikely Ivanka, the third child from her father’s marriage to Ivana Trump, will be returning to the White House when the president-elect takes office in January.

Barron Trump

The 6ft 7in teenager was seen towering over his father as he declared victory in the 2024 election at a speech in Florida.

Barron, 18, is the only child of the incoming president and his current wife Melania Trump.

The teenager reportedly advised his father to go on high-profile podcasts, such as The Joe Rogan Experience, during the 2024 campaign.

He is currently studying at New York University, and there have been reports he wants to follow in his father’s footsteps by going into politics.

However, it may be a bit too early for him to do so just yet.

Tiffany Trump

The 31-year-old, who is the only child from Mr Trump’s marriage to Marla Maples, supports her father’s politics and celebrated his win.

However, there is no suggestion Tiffany, who graduated from the Georgetown University Law Centre in 2020, will form part of his team or enter politics as a career.

Melania Trump

The former first lady will know what to expect as she prepares for another four years in the White House.

Mary Jordan, a Washington Post journalist and author of a book about Melania, has said she was like a “deer in the headlights” during the first term but could be a greater force the second time around.

Speaking to the i news website she said: “Melania will know more this time, she will have more experience, she will be wiser.

“Last time she was in the midst of a big feud with Ivanka who took some of the positions for the first lady – it was chaos… This time she will be wiser and have better people around her, hopefully people that won’t let her wear jackets with rude things on the back.”

The comment refers to a time when Melania wore a coat saying “I really don’t care, do you?” as she travelled to a migrant children’s shelter.

During Mr Trump’s first term in office, the 54-year-old compared living in the White House to being in a Venezuelan prison.

Whether she will enjoy it more this time, and play a bigger role in the Trump administration, remains to be seen.

Kai Trump

The 17-year-old, who is the daughter of Don Jr, has become a social media star thanks to her speeches in praise of her grandfather.

However, it may be a bit too early for her to join his top team in the next White House administration.

With Donald Trump preparing to return to the White House, attention has turned once again to Project 2025 – controversial plans for government linked to the president-elect.

The 922-page blueprint for government could reshape American democracy, it has been claimed.

It was written by an influential conservative thinktank, the Heritage Foundation.

It sets out policy proposals for a Republican win in the US presidential election, which was achieved when Mr Trump took Wisconsin yesterday morning, taking him past the 270 electoral college vote required for victory.

What policies are included in the document?

The document proposes a four pillar approach – the first sets out policies to be enacted, the others how those policies will be put in place.

This includes setting up a list of personnel who it says will be willing to move to Washington to form “an army of aligned, vetted, trained, and prepared conservatives to go to work on Day One to deconstruct the Administrative State”.

At its heart, it says, is the need to “restore the family” to the centre of US life, recommending that once a conservative president is inaugurated “Federal power must… be wielded to reverse the crisis and rescue America’s kids from familial breakdown.”

The policy agenda includes criminalising pornography, disbanding the departments for education and homeland security and overhauling the FBI.

It rejects the concept of abortion as healthcare and proposes the rollback of LGBTQ+ rights, ending climate projections and using the military to tackle large-scale protests.

On immigration, the blueprint calls for the largest deportation in history, a policy for which Donald Trump has also expressed his support.

The database of personnel willing to help deliver Project 25 would create a pool of politically-appointed civil servants, who would be trained via an online presidential academy.

A 180-day action plan for how the government would achieve its goals is the fourth pillar of the project.

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What is the Heritage Foundation?

The Heritage Foundation, based in Washington DC, was founded in 1973.

Its mission upon its creation was to mould America into a more Christian, conservative country.

“Essentially, what this boils down to is a vision of the country that privileges and prioritises Christians,” said US historian Dr Kristin Kobes Du Mez.

In 1981, the foundation wrote its first manifesto, which promised to roll back the state and unleash free market capitalism, the same year in which, in the January, Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as president.

One of the report’s authors says in its introduction: “By the end of that year, more than 60% of its recommendations had become policy.”

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What has Trump said about the document?

Donald Trump tried to distance himself from Project 2025 during the election campaign, but the president-elect has previously spoken at Heritage Foundation events.

In April 2022, he said: “This is a great group and they’re going to lay the groundwork in detailed plans for exactly what our movement will do and what your movement will do when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America.”

But in a rally this summer, he said the project had been designed by some on the “severe right”, and in September’s presidential debate he said he had “nothing to do with Project 2025”.

What have the Democrats said?

During the election campaign, the Democrats used Project 2025 as a major political attack point.

President Biden said the project would “destroy America”, while vice president Harris called it “extreme” and said would “weaken the middle class”.

Would such a large number of political appointees be possible?

Many positions in the US administration have to be vetted and go through a series of rounds of approval before they can be appointed.

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Some have questioned whether a plan to put such a large number of politically aligned appointees into positions across government would be possible.

Javed Ali, a security analyst and former senior director of counterterrorism under Donald Trump, told Sky News: “Depending on who is prefered by [Trump], will they go through the traditional process by which you have to be presidentially appointed, confirmed by the US senate, go through an extensive background investigation process to get your security clearance? Those are all things that have stood the test of time.

“If President Trump wants to bypass those, I’m not sure of the legal basis on which he can operate, or if there is some executive basis he might have as commander in chief, but that will be a fascinating aspect of this.”