The Latest: House remains in the balance as world reaction to Trump victory keeps pouring in

Republican leaders are projecting confidence that they will keep control of the U.S. House as more races were decided in their favor Thursday, while Democrats insist they still see a path toward the majority and sought assurances every vote will be counted.

The Republicans won control of the U.S. Senate early Wednesday.

Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here’s the latest:

The view from an Israeli settlement named after Trump

Israeli residents of “Trump Heights” are welcoming the election of their namesake, hoping Donald Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency will breathe new life into this tiny, remote settlement in the central Golan Heights.

During his first term, Trump became the first and only foreign leader to recognize Israel’s control of the Golan, which it seized from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel thanked him by rebranding this outpost after him.

But a large-scale influx of new residents never materialized after that 2019 ceremony, and just a couple dozen families live in Trump Heights, or “Ramat Trump” in Hebrew. Job opportunities are limited, and Israel’s more than yearlong war against Hezbollah militants in nearby Lebanon has added to the sense of isolation.

Trump’s election has inspired hope in the community that it will attract more members and also more funding for security improvements.

“President Trump’s return to the White House definitely puts the town in the headlines,” Ori Kallner, head of the Golan’s regional council, said.

▶ Read more from Ramat Trump.

How Trump went from diminished ex-president to victor

As he bid farewell to Washington in January 2021, deeply unpopular and diminished, Donald Trump was already hinting at a comeback.

“Goodbye. We love you. We will be back in some form,” Trump told supporters at Joint Base Andrews, where he’d arranged a 21-gun salute as part of a military send-off before boarding Air Force One. “We will see you soon.”

Four years later, he’s fulfilled his prophecy.

▶ Read more about his path back to the presidency.

Judge strikes down Biden administration program shielding immigrant spouses from deportation

A federal judge on Thursday struck down a Biden administration policy that aimed to ease a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens.

The program, lauded as one of the biggest presidential actions to help immigrant families in years, allowed undocumented spouses and stepchildren of U.S. citizens to apply for a green card without first having to leave the country.

The short-lived Biden administration initiative known as “Keeping Families Together” would have been unlikely to remain in place after Donald Trump took office in January. But its early termination creates greater uncertainty for immigrant families as many are bracing for Trump’s return to the White House.

▶ Read more about the decision.

Hungary’s Orbán predicts Trump will end support for Ukraine

Donald Trump’s biggest European fan, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, is predicting that his administration will cease providing support to Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Orbán’s comments were a signal that Trump’s election could drive a wedge among EU leaders on the question of the war.

Hungary’s leader is hosting the second of two days of summits Friday in the capital, Budapest. The war in Ukraine will be high on the agenda for a gathering of the EU’s 27 leaders, most of whom believe continuing to supply Ukraine with weapons and financial assistance are key elements for the continent’s security.

The nationalist Hungarian leader has long sought to undermine EU support for Kyiv, and routinely blocked, delayed or watered down the bloc’s efforts to provide weapons and funding and to sanction Moscow for its invasion.

“If Donald Trump had won in 2020 in the United States, these two nightmarish years wouldn’t have happened. There wouldn’t have been a war,” Orbán said. “The situation on the front is obvious, there’s been a military defeat. The Americans are going to pull out of this war.”

▶ Read more about the comments.

Turkey’s president praises Trump

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan praised Donald Trump over his election victory and expressed optimism for stronger relations between Turkey and the United States during his second term.

In comments made late Thursday, Erdogan also voiced hope that conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine could come to an end through collaboration with Trump.

Erdogan said Trump had won the election despite facing significant challenges, including an assassination attempt and criminal charges.

“Despite this, he continued his election campaign with much strength, tirelessly and with resilience,” Hürriyet newspaper and other media quoted Erdogan as telling journalists during a flight back from trips to Kyrgyzstan and Hungary.

Erdogan has said that in the upcoming period, he would raise the issue of a possible withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria with Trump.

Election officials say key Maine race must go to ranked choice counting

Maine election officials say a pivotal congressional race in the state must go to ranked choice counting to determine a winner.

Maine Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, a moderate known for defying his party, led by a thin margin over Republican Austin Theriault on Friday in a race that was still too early to call days after voting ended. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said late Thursday that neither candidate broke 50% of the total vote, and that means ranked ballots must be counted. The Associated Press has not called the race.

Ranked voting typically comes into play in races with more than two candidates on the ballot. Golden and Theriault were the only candidates in the 2nd Congressional District race, but writing in candidates was an option, and some voters used it.

Theriault said on Thursday that he was requesting a recount in the election, although the results were not tabulated yet at that time. A spokesperson for the Golden campaign said the recount is reasonable but the ranked counting is unnecessary.

“State Rep. Theriault has asserted his right to a recount by hand and Congressman Golden agrees to it. So let’s just do it, rather than incur the delays and expenses of a ranked-choice run-off,” the campaign said in a statement.

The Theriault campaign signaled Friday that it was supportive of the ranked count.

“There is a process in place and we look forward to the process unfolding according to the law,” campaign manager Shawn Roderick said.

In ranked choice voting, the second choices of voters who picked a losing candidate are redistributed to the higher finishers.

Election night television viewership drops sharply from 2020 and 2016

The idea of grabbing some popcorn and watching television to see who America has chosen for its next president was far less appealing this year than in the past.

The Nielsen company said that 42.3 million people watched election night returns between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump pour in Tuesday night. That’s down sharply from the 56.9 million who watched in 2020, when Trump competed against Joe Biden, and the 71.4 million who tuned in on election night 2016, Nielsen said.

Election night is often known as the Super Bowl for TV news, but this year even the NFL’s conference championship games were watched by more people.

▶ Read more about election night television viewership

Who is Susie Wiles, Donald Trump’s new White House chief of staff?

With her selection as President-elect Donald Trump ’s incoming White House chief of staff, veteran Florida political strategist Susie Wiles moves from a largely behind-the-scenes role of campaign co-chair to the high-profile position of the president’s closest adviser and counsel.

She’s been in political circles for years. But who is Wiles, the operative set to be the first woman to step into the powerful role of White House chief of staff?

▶ Read more about Trump’s new Chief of Staff Susie Wiles

An update from the AP Decision Desk on the races in Nevada and Arizona

Nevada: The late updates Thursday in Clark and Washoe counties in Nevada didn’t add many votes to the tally in the races for president and U.S. Senate. The deadline for mail ballots to arrive and be counted is Saturday. With tens of thousands of ballots potentially still left to count in the state’s two biggest counties, the races are too early to call.

Arizona: Another day of vote counting in Arizona added tens of thousands of votes to the tally on Thursday, but there remain hundreds of thousands of ballots left to count — including nearly half a million in Maricopa County. Officials there are still working their way through advance votes that arrived in October. The races for president and U.S. Senate remain too early to call.

GOP picks up more key House seats while Democrats insist they still have a path to a majority

Republican leaders projected confidence Thursday that they will keep control of the U.S. House as more races were decided in their favor, while Democrats insisted they still see a path toward the majority and sought assurances every vote will be counted.

The GOP picked up two more hard-fought seats in Pennsylvania, which became a stark battlefield of Democratic losses up and down the ticket. Democrats notched another win in New York, defeating a third Republican incumbent in that state.

Both parties in the House huddled privately on conference calls to assess the political landscape as Congress prepared to return next week to a changed Washington, where a sweep of MAGA-infused GOP power is within reach for President-elect Donald Trump.

▶ Revisit Thursday’s House calls