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Winning North Carolina and Georgia, Donald Trump seizes the advantage

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Editor’s note (November 6th, 2024): This story was updated after Mr Trump won Georgia.

DONALD TRUMP won the swing states of North Carolina and Georgia as he took a clear advantage in his race for the White House against Kamala Harris. The vice-president’s path to victory narrowed sharply as counts showed her underperforming Joe Biden’s showing of four years ago and giving, as of 12.30am Eastern time, Mr Trump a strong lead in the electoral college.

There were already warning signs for the Harris campaign as the first results poured in. Several hours after their polls closed, four of the other seven swing states seen as vital to the two candidates’ chances for winning the electoral college—Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin—were too close to call. Nevada was yet to release early numbers.

The road to an electoral-college victory for Ms Harris has tightened considerably. It would require her to sweep the “blue wall” states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where the vote count was proceeding more slowly. That now seems increasingly unlikely.

Outside the key battlegrounds, the early picture was no more encouraging for the Harris campaign. Ms Harris eked out a narrow victory in Virginia, which Mr Biden won comfortably in 2020. There, similarly to other suburban jurisdictions in Virginia, Ms Harris’s share of a near-complete vote trailed Mr Biden’s performance four years ago by more than six percentage points. That is a concerning trend if it extends to Pennsylvania and Michigan, where suburban voters are crucial to Ms Harris’s prospects.

In Florida, a former battleground that Mr Biden lost by just over three percentage points last time, Ms Harris was doing even worse, underperforming Mr Biden’s margin by ten percentage points with almost all of the state vote counted. Across all early reporting states, Ms Harris’s performance in counties posting near-complete votes to Mr Biden’s numbers in 2020 showed the vice-president underperforming.

Ms Harris and her allies will have to hope that the picture unfolds differently in Pennsylvania, the most important of the three blue-wall states, which always looked like a crucial state for both her and Mr Trump. Here there were at least a few encouraging signs. With just over a third of the expected vote posted in Montgomery County, a populous suburb of Philadelphia that leans Democratic, Ms Harris led with 68% of the vote, more than five percentage points better than Mr Biden’s performance four years ago. That is the sort of result she will probably need in all of Philadelphia’s blue-tinted-collar counties if she is to hold off Mr Trump’s strength in less populated rural areas.

Michigan’s vote was too incomplete to judge even several hours after its polls closed, and in Wisconsin, which Mr Biden won by just 20,000 votes four years ago, Mr Trump led narrowly with 61% of the vote counted. A similar early picture prevailed in Arizona, a state where pre-election polls had shown Mr Trump held his most significant advantage.

Because the trio of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin remained in play at 11pm EST—and no other state pegged for Ms Harris had fallen to Mr Trump—the election remained in the balance. What seemed clear is that if Ms Harris were to defy the early run of results and squeeze out a victory, it would emerge from the key Rust Belt states and would probably be as close as the razor-thin margins Mr Biden won there in 2020.

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Economics

Checks and Balance newsletter: Trump is embracing a shift in Republican priorities

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Will he follow through on his policy commitments?

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Economics

Donald Trump chooses hedge fund executive Scott Bessent for Treasury Secretary

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Scott Bessent, founder and chief executive officer of Key Square Group LP, during an interview in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, June 7, 2024.

Stefani Reynolds | Bloomberg | Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump has signaled his intention to nominate hedge fund executive Scott Bessent as his Treasury secretary, sources tell CNBC and NBC News.

The founder of Key Square Group had been considered a strong favorite for the position along with a few other close contenders.

As head of Treasury, Bessent, 62, will be both the U.S. fiscal watchdog as well as a key official to help Trump enact his ambitious economic agenda. Both a Wall Street heavyweight and advocate for many of the incoming president’s economic goals, he would come to office at a critical time as the U.S. wrestles with a growing economy alongside long-festering debt and deficit issues.

Like Trump, Bessent favors gradual tariffs and deregulation to push American business and control inflation. In addition, Bessent has advocated for a revival in manufacturing as well as energy independence.

The prospective nominee also has deep philanthropic ties through Yale University along with Rockefeller University and Classical American homes Preservation Trust.

One obstacle Bessent will have to overcome is his past affiliation with billionaire investor and global gadfly George Soros. Bessent served as chief investment officer for Soros’ fund.

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Economics

Trump might name Kevin Warsh as Treasury chief then Fed chair later, report says

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Kevin Warsh

Jin Lee | Bloomberg | Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump is considering naming Kevin Warsh as Treasury secretary then ultimately sending him off to serve as Federal Reserve chair, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

A former Fed governor himself, Warsh would move over to the central bank after current Chair Jerome Powell’s term expires in 2026, according to the Journal, which cited sources familiar with Trump’s thinking.

The speculation comes with Treasury being the last major Cabinet position for which Trump has yet to state his intention.

Various reports have put Warsh as one of the finalists with Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan and hedge fund manager Scott Bessent. Among the potential scenarios would be one where Bessent would lead the National Economic Council initially then go over to Treasury after Warsh takes over at the Fed.

However, Trump is known for the propensity to change his mind, and the report noted that nothing has been finalized.

Read the full Wall Street Journal story here.

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