America reacts to a swift resolution of a contentious presidential election

Former President Donald Trump's historic win Tuesday has Americans joyful, angry and surprised.

Some are excited that he will return to the White House four years after being driven into near-exile following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Others are worried for the future of women's health and immigration and frustrated that Vice President Kamala Harris couldn't get the votes to become the first female president. Many are ready to move on from the monthslong slog of harsh campaign rhetoric.

Unlike after the 2020 race, there appears to be little interest in questioning the vote count and no real talk of violence.

Trump will be the first president since Grover Cleveland 132 years ago to lose the office and win again four years later and his supporters are ecstatic.

'It's almost like having the Steelers win a game'

"It's a good day," said Roy Singleton, 42, of Pittsburgh. "It's almost like having the Steelers win a game."Singleton and his friends stood outside a Dunkin' Donuts on Wednesday morning in Pittsburgh's Market Square. They smoked cigarettes, chatted, and laughed as they took pictures with each other.

Singleton said Harris didn't do enough in four years as vice president, and didn't separate herself from Biden. "For her to agree and not change a thing Biden had done really spun me," he said.He voted for Obama in 2008 and often considered himself an independent but that changed over time. He voted for Trump in 2016.

If Harris had won, Singleton would have suspected the election was rigged, but now he's confident Trump was the rightful winner.

In rural South Carolina, Garrett Brinson, 34, who owns a rain gutter installation business, stopped for supplies at the Nixville Country Store on South Carolina Highway 3 in southern Hampton County.

"It went just like I hoped it would," Brinson said. "America was on the wrong track, and now maybe we can get back on the right one and put God first. I think that's what Trump is trying to do."

Pearl Phillips, a longtime employee at the Country Store, took a quick smoke break between ringing up customers. The 72-year-old said a couple of store patrons had appeared irate about the election results earlier that morning, but she was personally pleased.

"I think the right one went in," Phillips said. "Four years ago, gas was $1.97, now it's three dollars and something. Groceries have gone up. They haven't done anything for the working people in four years."

"And I don't have anything against a woman president," she added. "But it has to be the right one. I don't care what color she is, as long as she's smart enough to do the job."

In Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas, Bill Ross, a real estate agent, said he was anxious but confident as he settled in to watch the election results.

"We've seen open borders, we've seen increase in violent crimes and insane inflation cost," he said. "And we've been gaslighted by the administration. They kept trying to tell us how wonderful things were."

Independent voter Gay Harris, 72, stepped out of a parking garage in downtown Springfield, Ohio Wednesday, wearing a red jacket and multiple pieces of red, white and blue jewelry. Harris, who was going out to lunch with her retired teacher friends —she used to serve as the president of a local teacher's association—said she was "very happy" Trump won.

"They are not the Democratic Party that I used to know. I would vote for whoever I thought did the best job. But over the last 15 years, it's changed, and I just don't like the liberal policies that they have been leaning towards," she said.

Trump supporter, Betsy DeBry, who teaches Natural Family Planning classes at St. Anne Catholic Church in Richmond Hill, Georgia, said she celebrated Trump's big win with a nice cup of joe from a coffee shop Wednesday morning – something she seldom does. Later, she plans to meet with friends for lunch to celebrate his election into office.

"I don't worry about the person," said DeBry. "I worry about how that person is going to govern us. He has no reason to do this. He could sit at home and live a nice life. He took a bullet for us."

Regarding how she would feel if Harris had won, DeBry said: "Disappointed wouldn't even be the word. I would have very little hope for the future for my children. I would think it would be the end in terms of what she wanted to do. She lets in a lot of illegals and I feel like my generation is not able to do better than their parents."

Rich Washburn, 36, of Erie County, Pennsylvania, voted a straight GOP ticket and backed Trump for his strong opposition to illegal immigration.

Washburn was born in the Philippines and is an immigrant herself. She came to the U.S. a decade ago on an exchange visitor visa, which led and earned her citizenship about five years ago.

"For me personally, I think my morals and everything ‒ I mean, he's a d-k ‒ but what he wants for the country is what I wanted. I kind of like set aside him being a d-k, because he cares for the country and that's all I want."

'It's tough being a woman in this country'

Renee Erler, 50, was on her way to the Main Street shops in Carmel, Indiana, for some retail therapy after the results of yesterday's election left her feeling disappointed. Erler has a 24-year-old daughter and said the two are worried about what may happen now that their state and country have turned red. In Indiana, Republicans swept every statewide office and decisively voted for Trump over Harris.

"It's scary that we handed that much power to one party," said Erler, who lives in a wealthy suburb that is slowly growing more purple. The change hasn't happened quick enough to outweigh the red-leaning nature of the rest of the state.

Erler was in disbelief the election results turned out how they did and said she didn't understand whether Americans aren't ready for a female president or it was something else.

Harris voter Justin Tuerk, 38, of Chalfont, Pennsylvania, called the results scary.

"The whole platform was really misogynistic and racist, and the fact that he won the popular vote for the first time running on that kind of platform is giving me a little whiplash. I didn't expect so many people to either ignore those sentiments or agree with those sentiments," Tuerk said.

Nevada youth-voting advocate Karrina Ferris was spending the day filling out law school applications with an eye toward running for office herself one day, she said Wednesday morning from her home in Carson City. She was also taking cry breaks and "unfollowing many people" on Instagram.

"It's tough being a woman in this country," said Ferris, 22, who is Miss Nevada 2024. "Honestly, I am devastated. I'm scared for the lack of checks and balances that may happen on the federal level, and worried for our Supreme Court. And disappointed that sexual assault, racism, sexism, fraud weren't deal-breakers for more Americans."

Stephanie Thomas said she cried herself to sleep watching the results come in.

"I feel like there is so much to this loss," the 41-year-old southern Alabama native told USA TODAY. "There is racism, sexism, and ignorance, there are people that felt left behind by the Democratic party and no one really reached them so they voted (third) party or for Trump. They aren't deplorables, they aren't garbage, they are lost, and now I feel this country is lost as well."

Faith Frank, a 22-year-old barista at a trendy, white-tiled coffee shop in Evanston, Indiana, said she voted for Harris, in large part because of Trump's rhetoric and policies that she believes will harm "the lives of women, queer people and people of color.""The whole world today feels solemn," Frank said. "It was an election of two extremes, which made it tough ... I think everyone is just feeling scared."

Al Hariston Sr. of South Bend, Indiana, said he got up at 3 a.m. Wednesday, turned on the TV and saw that Trump had won 256 Electoral College votes to Harris' 219. He said he knew it was over.

"In a way I think I knew he was going to win because this country is prejudiced," Hariston said. "They don't want another Black person in that office."

"She's a smart individual," he said of Harris, "but she never had a chance."

It's all about the economy

Tuerk said Democrats need to examine their message to voters.

"I kept saying to my wife, I said, you know, Kamala commercials just seem so out of touch with what is actually happening in people's lives. And Donald Trump, even though I don't believe what he's saying, all his ad campaigns resonate with working class people," Tuerk said.

In Reno, Nevada, Harris voter Tim Hilliard, 47, said he hopes Trump can keep his promises to lower gas and grocery prices.

"We do hope that he stays true to his word to make the economy better ... (and) more affordable, but we will see in the next four years," said Hilliard, a chemical operator.Hilliard said he hopes the "landslide" win by Trump can spark a national reconciliation and help the country move past bitter political divisions."We are going to have to accept the decision and hopefully move forward in the most positive way to help become one again and not so divided," Hilliard said. "Now the election is over, hopefully that's where we get to."

Sarah Waline-Rittman, who said she didn't vote and feels like nothing will change, was shopping on Wednesday morning at Coborn's Grocery in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

Although she holds a political science degree, Waline-Rittman said she felt like neither candidate would improve her quality of life at all and felt like working within the political system wouldn't help. "Things are still impossible and prices keep going up, so you can't rely on them to fix (it), because they don't care about us," she said. "You can't win if you play by their rules. Take a completely different approach, you have to work within our community, not expect the federal government to do anything."

'Half of America's happy. Half of America's pissed'

Steve Clark, of Ashland, Massachusetts, said he reminded his daughter this morning that Trump was president before and thing weren't so bad.

"At the end of the day, life moves on and things are going to happen and I don't think we can get caught up in the in the swings of every couple of years of what happened on either side," he said. "Whether it was the Democrats or the Republicans that win, all we do is focus on the race to 51 (percent of the electorate), but we have to do more to bring the 49 and the 51 together."

In downtown Reno, barber Damon Watson, 50, said he expected the country to continue on much as it always has. A self-proclaimed "little guy," he said Congress is where the real decision-making power lies, and he said his customers have long been fairly equally divided politically.

"Half of America's happy. Half of America's pissed. Just like yesterday," Watson said. "Just like every day, all the time."