He's been labelled a threat to democracy, a racist, a misogynist and a fascist and has multiple criminal indictments, but Donald Trump is heading back to the White House.

The Associated Press reports that Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, has called Donald Trump to concede defeat. She will speak publicly on the matter imminently.

Trump claimed victory for the Republicans on Wednesday evening. While he has already won the majority in the US Senate and the popular vote, the count is still out for the House of Representatives which has become an important one to watch.

It will either serve as the sole Democratic check on the incoming Trump presidency, or deliver a united Trump government.

The race for the White House was on a razor's edge right until the big day, with the candidates tied at 48 per cent each for the popular vote, according to the final New York Times/Siena College national poll on October 25.

This campaign trail has not been a "typical one" — Harris said so herself last week.

Watch: What it's like at a Donald Trump and Kamala Harris rally. Post continues below.

It's been quite the opposite, really, with some of the most tumultuous months in recent American political history.

I mean, when was the last time you can think of two assassination attempts, two high-profile debates, a presidential candidate dropping out and dozens of rallies in the space of a few months?

So, how did we get here? And what comes next?

Inside the "Trumpiverse".

President Joe Biden's disastrous performance in the first debate of the campaign trail worked in Trump's favour.

The former president held a a four-percentage-point lead over Biden among registered voters after the debate, according to the Pew Research Centre.

Biden's performance furthered doubts about his age, with party pressure leading to him dropping out of the race.

His endorsement of Harris helped the vice president gain a small lead over Trump. However, in recent weeks the close race returned.

The candidates brought contrasting strengths and weaknesses to the contest, with the Pew Research Centre reporting Trump's key advantage was on the economy while Harris's lead was on abortion.

Harris was Trump's ideal opponent, writes The Guardian political columnist Jonathan Freedland.

"A liberal, accomplished, affluent woman from California, an avatar for the very cultural elite he and many millions of others despise," he said.

"In case that impression of her were not sharp enough, she reinforced it with a parade of A-list stars campaigning for her in the final stretch, repeating the same mistake Hillary Clinton made in 2016."

Combine all this with the fact that racism and misogyny are still rife in the US and Freedland says, it should not be a shock that a Black woman was not voted in.

Anthropologist Alex Hinton has been studying the "Trumpiverse" since 2015 and has spoken with supporters ranging from the Make America Great Again (MAGA) faithful to moderate "hold the nose and vote for him" conservatives.

He says many people have thoughtful reasoning for voting for Trump, even if that was inflamed by populist polarisers and media platforms.

"Where those on the left see Trump's many failings, those on the right may see what some political observers call Trump Derangement Syndrome," he wrote in The Conversation.

Trump Derangement Syndrome, a name coined by the former president himself, refers to the idea that liberals have a knee-jerk reaction to anything Trump does, good or bad.

Other key reasons included Trump's harsh immigration stance or them simply not being better off than they were four years ago.

"While some Harris supporters lament Trump's destruction of democracy and decency in politics, I have found that Trump voters see a charismatic MAGA bull in a China shop," he said.

This was only heightened by Trump surviving two assassination attempts, emerging from one bloodied, strong and defiant with his fist raised in the air.

For some Trump supporters, MAGA is not just a slogan, it's the only way to 'save America.'

Listen to Mamamia's news podcast Trump's Claimed Victory, But How Did We Get Here? Post continues below.

What does Trump have planned for America?

Trump is heading back into the White House with experience (he's been here before!) and a whole lot of resentment at his detractors.

On Wednesday night he said of his plans for the country, "I will govern by a simple motto: Promises made, promises kept."

Trump is already skirting the conventional transition process. He has refused to sign ethics agreements that would allow his campaign to work with the Biden administration on a handover. According to CNN, that's because he has a deep mistrust of federal agencies.

Last time he had a few moderate Republicans around him who used to criticise his more outlandish claims and decisions, but this time he's mostly surrounded by "yes" people, as any anti-Trump-ers have been voted out or have left.

And he has a Supreme Court that last time, he managed to sway in his favour and make largely conservative.

So what's his plan with all this power? Everyone is talking about 'Project 2025' which refers to a 900-page policy "wish list", created by Heritage Foundation — one of Washington's most prominent right-wing think tanks.

However, Trump has largely dismissed the plans and has even said, "I disagree with some of the things they're saying." (However, many of the officials and advisors from his last administration have contributed to it).

The highlights from the 'project' include "unitary executive theory" aka, placing all of federal bureaucracy under direct presidential control. A nationwide abortion ban, (which Trump says he would not sign), and more funding for the US/Mexico border.

Further on the abortion plans, Trump has played down abortion as a second-term priority, maintaining that overturning Roe V. Wade is enough on the federal level.

As for promises that have actually come from Trump's mouth:

-He has vowed to end Russia's war against Ukraine by his inuguration.

-He's promised to carry out the "largest deportation" effort in U.S. history.

-He'll cut federal funding to teach 'critical race theory' and transgender matters.

-Repeal Biden's electric vehicle mandate.

-End federal taxes on tips.

-Stop taxing Social Security benefits for seniors.

-Replace the Affordable Care Act. As for his replacement — he hasn't disclosed that yet.

-Expand the child tax credit.

Trump has also said many times that he intends to fire the special counsel Jack Smith, and put an end to the federal cases levelled against him for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election and mishandling of classified information.

How does America's voting system actually work?

America's voting system is intricate.

The popular vote does not decide the US president, meaning a candidate with less votes can end up being the winner. This happened in 2016, when Trump won despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton.

Essentially, it's not one fight to get the most votes overall, it's 50 fights, one for each state.

This system is called the 'electoral college', where each state is allocated a certain number of 'electors'.

When members of the public cast their ballot, they are voting from this slate of individual electors. 39 states have laws requiring electors to vote in line with their party's pledged candidate, however neither the Constitution or federal law binds them to this.

The states all get at least two votes — one for each senator — along with extra votes based on the number of representatives the state has in the House of Representatives (which is based on population size).

So, for example, Texas has 40 votes due to its large population, while Nevada, which is mostly desert, only gets six.

If a candidate wins a majority in a state, they collect all of its electoral college votes (except Nebraska and Maine, who don't follow the winner-takes-all approach).

At large, this makes winning some states very important, because of the amount of college votes they represent. An incumbent president needs 270 electoral college votes to win.

Local votes must be counted and certified by December 11 for electors to formally cast their votes.

This takes place on December 17, when electors meet in their respective states to officially cast the state's electoral votes for president and vice president.

The vote certificates must be received by the US senate president by the fourth Wednesday in December, which falls on Christmas Day this year.

On January 3, representatives and senators will be sworn into the new congress.

This year, all 435 seats in the house of representatives were up for election and 34 seats were being contested in the senate.

Congress then meets and counts the votes on January 6.

The vice president presides over the count and announces the results, meaning Harris will proclaim her defeat on the same day Trump supporters stormed the Capitol back in 2021.January 20 marks inauguration day for Trump and new Vice President JD Vance.

Feature image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.