US election news LIVE: Harris wraps her star-studded campaign in Georgia as Trump takes stage in Nevada

When either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris becomes the next United States president, they will effectively become the leader of the free world. However, this world leader is still a federal employee and draws a salary from the State.

However, this pay is unlike any regular Joe’s pay. While the typical American earns an average of $44,500 (Rs 37.41 lakh) a year, the US president is paid $400,000 (Rs 3.36 crore) annually. But it doesn’t end with that. The US president also receives an extra allowance, a travel account and other perks such as an entertainment allowance and a pension after stepping down from office.

Want to know just how much moolah will the new US president rake in? What about how much it compares to older presidents? We have the answers you are looking for.

Kamala Harris speaking during a town hall in Malvern, Pennsylvania, left, and Donald Trump delivering remarks on Hurricane Helene in Swannanoa, North Carolina. AP

Former US Ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft said that Ottawa will have to “buckle up” and “pay up” if her boss and ex-US President Donald Trump comes back to office. Craft served as the top US envoy in Canada between 2017 and 2019.

On Thursday, the American diplomat maintained that a future Trump administration will expect Ottawa to meet its NATO military spending commitment. She said that targets should be met quickly under the timeline set by the country’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Canada’s ruling Liberal party is currently facing its own share of pressure to conduct elections quickly amid declining popularity.

“It’s going to be another conversation, a very firm conversation that Canada needs to pay their fair share,” Craft, who also served as a Trump-era United Nations ambassador, said at a policy forum in Canada. “The United States does not need to have most of the weight on their shoulders. That is not fair to the American taxpayer,” she added.

Then-President Donald Trump with Kelly Craft in 2019 when served as ambassador to the UN. File Image: AP

While addressing a rally in Nevada, Trump mocked former US President Barack Obama for his Nobel peace prize. “They gave Obama the Nobel Prize, he didn’t even know what the hell he had done. He still doesn’t,” Trump said at the Nevada rally on Thursday night. “He got elected and they announced that he got a Nobel Prize. I won a bigger, crazier election but they gave him a Nobel Prize,” he added.

Trump delivers his closing message to voters by complaining that President Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize and he didn’t pic.twitter.com/H5H6BuNTiu

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 25, 2024

While addressing a packed crowd in Las Vegas, Nevada, Trump reiterated his economic policies to draw cheers from the crowd. “We will end inflation,” he tells supporters. “And we will bring back the American Dream.”

It is pertinent to note that inflation has eased in recent months after peaking in 2022. Trump repeats his “No tax on tips” proposal – to huge applause – which he first floated during a previous stop in Las Vegas. He also vowed to block taxes on overtime and social security payments.

Donald Trump stands at a podium during a Turning Point rally. Source: Reuters

Former Democratic lawmaker Tulsi Gabbard revealed why she joined the Republican Party, in an interview with Fox News. “Independent thinkers like me have no home in the Democrat Party of censorship and total conformity and war. Under President Trump’s leadership, the Republican Party welcomes people like us,” she said.

The video was eventually shared by Trump on TruthSocial.

The Harris-Walz campaign just confirmed that the vice president will not be appearing on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Meanwhile, Trump is scheduled to record an interview with Rogan on Friday. However, the release date of the interview is still unknown.

Speaking to MSNBC, spokesperson Ian Sams said the Harris campaign had been in touch with Rogan’s programme, but ultimately the “scheduling” did not line up. Harris previously recorded a podcast episode with Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast – which is the second most-listened-to podcast on the planet and is geared mostly towards young women.

US Vice President Kamala Harris will not be attending the Joe Rogan podcast.

While addressing a rally in Las Vegas, Tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy said that he expects Democrats will regret having Kamala Harris as their nominee. “I hope they wake up and realise that identity politics never works in America,” he said. The remarks come at an event that has been billed as a Republican effort to reach out to the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.

Vivek Ramaswamy speaking during the second day of the Republican National Convention on Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee. AP

Several surprise guests came out in Trump’s support at a rally in Las Vegas tonight. Former race car driver Danica Patrick just appeared. She urges the audience to do everything they can to elect Donald Trump. “We need to be too big to rig, right?” Patrick says, referring to Trump’s false, repeated allegations that the 2020 election was rigged.

“Let’s win it by more than anyone ever has,” she added, which was followed by a big round of applause. Goya CEO, Robert Unanue, as well as Trump loyalist Kash Patel, were also present at the event.

While addressing the rally in Arizona, former US President Donald Trump called the United States an “occupied country”. “The United States is now an occupied country,” he said. “November 5th, 2024 will be called Liberation Day.”

US Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign said that her rally in Georgia drew a crowd of 23,000 people. Harris’s rally saw Bruce Springsteen performing and former president Barack Obama fired up the crowd – with many people coming out to specifically see him.

Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris boards Air Force Two at Michigan on Oct. 18, 2024, during the 2024 US presidential election campaign. (Photo: Reuters)

Pennsylvania officials said on Thursday that a video purportedly showing ballots in Bucks County being destroyed “was fabricated in an attempt to undermine confidence in the upcoming election.”

“This type of behaviour is meant to sow division and distrust in our election systems, and makes a mockery of the people working incredibly hard to ensure a free and fair election is carried out,” the Bucks County Board of Elections said in a bipartisan statement. The authorities maintained that they are in touch with the FBI over the matter.

In yet another provocative remark, former US President Donald Trump said that he would fire special counsel Jack Smith in “two seconds” if he gets re-elected as the president of the United States. Many touted the proclamation as Trump’s clear intent to shut down the two criminal cases Smith brought against him.

The remarks from Trump came with just 12 days left to the highly anticipated November polls. The Republican presidential nominee unleashed a barrage of insults at Smith while speaking to conservative podcast host Hugh Hewitt. Trump was asked whether he would pardon himself or fire the special counsel first.

“Oh, it’s so easy. It’s so easy … I would fire him within two seconds,” the former president said about Smith, who has charged Trump in two high-profile cases in the last two years. One deals with the classified documents Trump hid in Mar-a-Lago and the other one deals with the Republican politician’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 US Presidential elections.

Former US President Donald Trump (R) pledges to fire US Special Counsel Jack Smith if he wins the elections. AP

While concluding her rally in Georgia, Kamala Harris evoked the legacy of the late Congressman John Lewis. As the great Congressman John Lewis reminded us, Democracy is not a state, it is an act,” Harris said. Georgia senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, who spoke earlier in the evening, were close confidants of Lewis’. Warnock was Lewis’ pastor and Ossoff served as an intern in Lewis’ office early in his career.

Lewis represented Georgia in the US House of Representatives and was a civil rights leader most famous for organizing the March on Washington.

During a campaign event in North Carolina, Democratic VP pick Tim Walz lauded former Vice President Dick Cheney for endorsing Kamala Harris – while also acknowledging his own past criticism of Cheney.

“Trust me on this. I have expressed my opinions over the years very strongly toward former Vice President Cheney on where I felt. But when the time came to protect the Constitution, he’s making the right decision,” Walz said.

“And I have no illusion on this. Dick Cheney is protecting the Constitution, but the minute he gets to vote for a true Republican, he will vote for a true Republican. And we will welcome that. The minute that they do that — he will do that, and he will not vote for me — and I understand that.” he added.

Former President Barack Obama reiterated claims made by Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly as he rallied for Harris in Georgia on Thursday. “The other day, General John Kelly, Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, said that Trump told him he wanted his generals to be like Hitler’s generals,” Obama said.

“In politics, a good rule of thumb is don’t say you want to do anything like Hitler,” he added. “These are serious people,” the former president remarked, speaking of Kelly and Mark Meadows, who both served as Trump’s chief of staff. “They are not, quote, unquote, woke liberals. They are people who have never in the past even talked about politics, because they believe that the military should be above politics. But the reason they’re speaking up is because they have seen that in Donald Trump’s mind, the military does not exist to serve the Constitution or the American people. He doesn’t see being commander in chief as a solemn, sacred responsibility, just like everything else. He thinks the military exists to do his bidding, to serve his interests,” he concluded.

Former US President Barack Obama took the stage in Madison, Wisconsin to campaign for Harris. Image courtesy: X.com/@Tim_Walz

While addressing a rally in Tempe, Arizona, former US President Donald Trump called the United States a “garbage can”. He said that the country is in this state because of US President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.

“We’re like a garbage can. You know, it’s the first time I’ve ever said that. And every time I come up and talk about what they’ve done to a country I get angrier and angrier. First time I’ve ever said ‘garbage can,’ but you know what, it’s a very accurate description,” Trump said.

When Trump invoked Springfield, Ohio, to prove his point, a woman behind the travelling press area yelled, “They’re eating the cats!” parroting his false claims about Haitian migrants living in the city, CBS News reported.

Former US President Donald Trump. Reuters

Republican Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance called current US VP Kamala Harris ‘anti-Catholic’ in an essay in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today. Vance’s comments came just a day after Donald Trump attended a campaign event at a church in Zebulon, Georgia yesterday, where he claimed Catholics are “treated worse than anybody.” Later, at a CNN town hall yesterday evening, Harris spoke openly about her Christian faith, noting that she prays every day.

In the Post-Gazette essay, Vance argues that Harris and other Democrats have “mocked” Catholics and that her support of progressive policies – like same-sex marriage and gender-affirming healthcare – is anti-Catholic.

(L-R) Ohio Senator JD Vance and Vice President Kamala Harris. AP

According to CNN, 29 million people across the United States have cast their votes before the November 5 polls. So far, Republicans have cast 32 per cent of ballots, up from 27 per cent at this point in 2020. Meanwhile, the Democrats have cast 42 per cent of the votes, down from 47 per cent at this point in the last presidential election. In recent weeks, Trump and his supporters have increasingly called for Republicans to vote early – a strategy Republicans have not typically embraced in the past.

A woman casts her ballot on the day of the South Carolina Presidential Primary in Union, South Carolina, US, February 29, 2020. Reuters

As the race for the White House intensifies, the Republican mayor in the crucial swing state of Wisconsin backed Harris, insisting that he was “terrified of Donald Trump becoming the next president”.

“He’s already been impeached twice, he’s been convicted of felonies, and this is not what the United States needs,” Wisconsin mayor Shawn Reilly told Fox News. Reilly said that he also went against the Republican party in 2020 when he privately voted for Joe Biden and added that he left the party in 2021 after the Capitol riots on 6 January.

When either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris become the next US president, history will be scripted. File image/AP

Former US President Donald Trump opened his rally in Tempe, Arizona by watching Kamala Harris’ town hall on CNN last night and called her performance pathetic. Meanwhile, he denounced reporters in the building for focusing their cameras on his face and not the charts he shows at his rallies.

Trump’s running mate JD Vance is also expected to take stage at a separate event in Waterford Michigan.

Republican presidential candidate former US President Donald Trump, left, and Republican vice presidential candidate Senator JD Vance, R-Ohio, attend the Republican National Convention, July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee. File Image/AP

While addressing a charged-up gathering in Greenville North Carolina, Minnesota governor Tim Walz told the crowd that Harris has “a to-do list” while Trump has “an enemy’s list.”

“When you don’t think that guy can get any lower, the idea that the people closest to him — 4-star generals — telling us that guy is fantasizing behind closed doors that he wished he had Adolf Hitler’s generals. That is so damn disqualifying,” Walz said.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Governor Tim Walz gestures as he speaks during a debate with Republican vice presidential nominee US Senator JD Vance (R-OH) hosted by CBS in New York, US, October 1, 2024. File Image/Reuters

With less than two weeks left for the November polls, Colorado authorities are investigating an alleged ballot ground scheme in Mesa County. The authorities believe that at least 12 ballots appeared to have been intercepted before reaching the intended voters filled out and returned to the county clerk.

The issue was flagged during the state’s signature verification process. Several voters contacted the county clerk’s office after they were notified that their ballot had a discrepant signature. Another voter received notification through the state’s ballot tracking system that their ballot had already been received for processing, despite the voter not receiving it.

“This attempt at fraud was found and investigated quickly because of all the trailblazing processes and tools Colorado has in place like signature verification, ballot tracking, and the curing process. Every eligible Colorado voter will be able to make their voice heard this election,” Secretary of State Jena Griswold said in a statement over the matter.

A newly released survey from the Michigan State University says that Harris holds a small lead Michigan, a swing state.

The poll, conducted from September 23 through October 10 found that Harris held a lead over former president Donald Trump at 52 per cent to 48 per cent among likely voters in the state.

With the US involved in the Ukraine war and growing tensions in the Middle East, foreign policy is shaping voter decisions.

A September Pew poll showed 62 per cent of voters consider foreign policy important, with a strong focus on the conflicts in Israel and Gaza. This is especially significant for Muslim and Arab American voters, many of whom may shift their support away from Harris due to dissatisfaction with US policies on Gaza.

In battleground states, and in a tight election, these issues have the potential to influence the election outcome.

Candidates must balance projecting strength in international matters while avoiding promises that could divide voters.

Amid reports of Georgia voters turning up for early voting in record numnbers, an election official has confirmed that over 2.25 million ballots had been cast in the state.

Georgia has seen action-packed campaigns, with Trump and Harris trying to woo voters in this crucial battleground state. Harris is rallying here for the second time in less than a week, and her Republican rival was in the state just yesterday.

Kamala Harris’s campaign attacked Donald Trump over the controversial Project 2025 once again.

The campaign’s official account on social media platform X posted a video that showed Trump denying he has anything to do with Project 2025 at an event where Peter Navarro was present. The account claimed Navarro is the author of Project 2025.

Wait for it pic.twitter.com/8YlkeM2Ahi

— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) October 24, 2024

“Project 2025” is a 900-page long policy wishlist. IT has proposed that the entire federal bureaucracy, including independent agencies, be placed under direct presidential control. Another controversial point is withdrawal of the abortion pill mifepristone and greater data collection on abortion.

Harris had attacked Trump during the presidential debate saying, “In his Project 2025 there would be a national monitor that would be monitoring your pregnancies, your miscarriages.”

The Democratic National Committee Thursday said it had launched a six-figure advertising campaign to reel in Asian American voters for Harris.

The strategy may well pay off in swing state Nevada, where Asian Americans make up 12 per cent of the electorate.

The costly advertising campaign isn’t all, though. Middle-aged South Indian women, too, have banded together into a Chitthi brigade to help Kamala Harris secure votes.

According to BBC, roughly 200 members of the Chitthi Brigade are knocking doors in South Asian neighbourhoods. Their aim is to make a desi connection with the people and push them to vote for Harris.

Emphasising his anti-immigrant rhetoric, Trump took to his social media platform Truth Social to criticise the United States “Open Borders” policy (sic) and immediately correct the “damage” that it has done.

Trump used a screenshot of a post by Justin Trudeau to strengthen his argument, saying that even Canada is closing its border.

Emphasising his anti-immigrant rhetoric, Trump took to his social media platform Truth Social to criticise the United States “Open Borders” policy (sic) and immediately correct the “damage” that it has done.

Trump used a screenshot of a post by Justin Trudeau to strengthen his argument, saying that even Canada is closing its border.

Former President Trump on Wednesday night blasted his former White House chief of staff John Kelly as a “lowlife” and “total degenerate” on his social media platform Truth Social.

Kelly had alleged that Trump has praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and had said he wanted “the kind of Generals Hitler had” in a series of interviews.

The post, Trump’s first public remark after Kelly’s interviews, read thus:

More than a quarter of the electorate in the hurricane-hit swing state of North Carolina have already cast their votes.

According to NC’s Board of Elections, about 26 per cent of  North Carolina’s nearly 7.8 million registered voters, meaning over two million voters, had cast their ballots in the state as of 1200 GMT on Thursday.

Economic analyst Steve Rattner told MSNBC that Trump’s plans of mass deportation and trade wars would tank the US economy. Citing a study by Bloomberg Economics, he pointed out that the Republican candidate’s plans would cut the GDP by 8.9 per cent, while those of Harris would cut it by 0.1 per cent.

The 8.9 per cent downturn would be roughly double the fall in gDP than noticed during the financial crisis, he said, adding that “So we would be looking at something between a recession and a depression.”

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Thursday (October 24) said that the United States, despite making progress in identifying foreign election interference, is still not where it needs to be.

“We are not where we need to be, I acknowledge that,” Sullivan said at an event on artificial intelligence, according to Reuters

Waukesha is the seat of a reliably Republican county outside Milwaukee in the swing state of Wisconsin. On Wednesday (October 23), its mayor Shawn Reilly endorsed Harris for president.

“I am terrified of Donald Trump becoming our next president[…]He’s already been impeached twice, he’s been convicted of felonies. This is not what the United States needs”

He said he voted for a third candidate in 2016, and voted for Biden in 2020 but kept it to himself, according to FOX6 News Milwaukee.

In a recent poll conducted by the Financial Times and the University of Michigan Ross School of Business, it was found that Donald Trump has surpassed Kamala Harris as the candidate Americans trust with the economy.

The poll revealed that 44 per cent of registered voters trust Trump more to handle the economy, compared to 43 per cent for Harris. This highlights the Democratic party’s challenge in convincing voters that they are better off economically now than they were four years ago.