KTAF NEWS

Donald Trump is projected to have won Arizona in the US presidential election, giving him a clean sweep of all seven battleground states.

Securing the south-western state, which was the last to declare its result after days of counting, has given Trump the final 11 electoral college votes up for grabs – taking him to a total of 312 compared with Vice-President Kamala Harris’s 226. A candidate needs 270 to win the White House.

The Republican Party has already secured the Senate – the upper chamber of the US Congress – but the race for the House of Representatives is ongoing.

Trump is yet to comment on the update from Arizona, which came late on Saturday.

Arizona had previously been a Republican stronghold, voting red for more than 20 years before Trump lost it to outgoing President Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Just over 10,000 votes separated the two candidates.

During this year’s campaign, the president-elect promised mass deportations of undocumented migrants living in the US, and has pledged to seal the border.

He also said he would complete construction of a wall between the US and Mexico, which was started during his first presidency. Mexico borders Arizona for hundreds of miles.

Both Trump and Vice-President Harris visited the state several times, with the former focusing heavily on deportation and the latter on tighter border security and pathways to US citizenship.

The number of crossings at the US southern border hit record levels at the end of last year, during the Biden-Harris administration, before falling in 2024.

There are an estimated 12 million undocumented migrants in the US, and many have lived and worked in the country for decades.

Experts have told the BBC that deportations on the scale Trump has promised would face huge challenges and slow economic growth – he also promised to “end inflation”.

In the run up to US election day, polls had suggested it would be a very tight election – but Trump’s vote share ultimately grew across key demographics.

Earlier on Saturday, Trump announced that Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo – who both served in the president-elect’s previous administration – would not be offered new positions when he returns to the White House in January.

He wrote in a social media post that he “very much enjoyed working with them previously” and thanked them for their service.

Some of Trump’s closest allies have accused Haley and Pompeo of being so-called deep state moles, arguing they would plot to undermine his ‘America First’ agenda.

Former South Carolina Governor Haley had been the main challenger to Trump for the Republican presidential nomination – she strongly criticised her former boss during primaries, calling him “unhinged”.

She eventually endorsed Trump, though he did not call on her to help with his campaign on the final stretch of the election.

While it is little surprise that Haley did not make the shortlist for a role, former CIA director Pompeo had been widely tipped as a contender for secretary of defence.

The former Kansas congressman led Trump’s diplomatic blitz in the Middle East and often tangled with the press in defence of his boss.

But influential voices within the Trump-world have been lobbying against Pompeo and Haley.

They include veteran political strategist Roger Stone, who wrote on his website on Friday that Trump ought to beware of “neocons” who might form “a sinister fifth column” within his new administration. Stone singled out Haley and Pompeo.

It was also announced over the weekend that Biden will host the president-elect in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

The meeting will bring together two bitter rivals for a display of national unity after one of the most rancorous American election campaigns in living memory.

Such moments are a tradition between the outgoing and incoming presidents – though when Trump lost his re-election bid in 2020 amid the Covid pandemic he did not invite Biden. Nor did he attend his successor’s inauguration, as is customary.

Incoming First Lady Melania Trump has also been invited to the White House to meet Jill Biden, an East Wing official told CNN, though it is unclear when that might happen.