Welcome back to your weekly update on US politics, where North America bureau chief Jade Macmillan catches you up on the biggest post-election developments.

A decisive victory. An unprecedented comeback. However you describe it, Donald Trump's election win will go down as a truly extraordinary moment in United States politics.

There are plenty of questions being asked about how it went so wrong for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

Was her incredibly short run at the White House doomed to fail from the moment Joe Biden quit so late in the race? Would she have been her party's first choice, had there been an open primary?

Whatever the weaknesses of the vice-president's campaign, Trump's success was remarkable.

And as we try to understand exactly how he achieved it, conversations with two American voters sprung to mind.

One woman's political shift towards Trump

I first met Holly Purcell ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

She and her husband Steven run a machine parts workshop in Hershey, Pennsylvania – the home of Hershey's chocolates.

Holly had previously considered herself a lifelong Democrat and voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016.

She was no fan of Trump back then.

"I didn't like his personality," she told me.

But by 2022, historically high inflation had pushed up the cost of running the Purcells' business.

Stephen said it was the biggest issue the family-run company had faced since it was started in 1968.

At the same time, he and Holly were grappling with rising prices at the supermarket.

In the lead-up to the midterms, Holly made what she described as the "tough decision" to register as a Republican. At this election, she voted for Trump.

"I'm ecstatic," she said when we caught up after the results were called.

"I can't believe that Pennsylvania went red."

Trump urged voters to punish Biden, and his vice-president, for the cost-of-living pressures that had already helped to evict other incumbent governments around the world.

There's plenty of debate around whether his signature policies of tariffs on imports, and the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, will help or hinder the US economy.

But for voters like Holly, Trump's approach to both economic and immigration issues — which was another major worry for her — come across as "common sense".

"I feel like I'm on the right side, if there has to be a side," she said.

Border in the spotlight

Concerns about immigration also influenced the political views of Brooklyn resident Brenda Lee.

She'd voted for both Democrats and Republicans in the past. But when we first spoke earlier this year for a Foreign Correspondent episode about border policy, she'd decided to back Trump.

"I'm hoping that he closes the border, like freeze on the border," she said at the time.

"Just until we get this in control."

The number of people crossing into the US without authorisation had risen substantially under Biden's administration.

Democratic-led cities like New York were struggling to cope with a surge of new arrivals, driven partly by a bussing program introduced by the Republican governor of Texas.

Brenda had joined with other locals to protest the establishment of a large tent shelter on the outskirts of their neighbourhood.

They were advertising an upcoming rally with posters that read: "New Yorkers come first."

Biden sought to toughen his stance on immigration, as Trump made the issue central to his campaign.

Both the president, and then Harris, blamed him for deliberately sinking bipartisan legislation aimed at addressing the situation.

Ultimately though, Brenda feels like Democrats didn't do enough to address frustrations over both the border and the cost of living.

"People felt that others were being prioritised over Americans in their homeland," she said as she took the election outcome in.

"And that was kind of like a slap in the face to people when they were struggling."

Trump didn't win New York at this election, as he'd claimed he could.

But he improved his standing in a state that has long been considered very safe for Democrats. And there were significant swings towards him in other blue states, too.

"I think he's going to do right by the people," Brenda said.

"And hopefully we'll have a good four years, right?"

How Trump made inroads into the Democratic base

Holly and Brenda are just two of the millions of Americans who had their say at this election.

Analysts will pore over the detailed reasons behind Trump's victory for years to come.

There is already particular interest in how he built support among demographics that have traditionally leaned towards Democrats.

Latino voters in Arizona and Florida, for example, had told us they believed Trump better represented the values of most importance to their communities.

Black Americans in Georgia said they were drawn to Trump's experience as a businessman.

And a former self-described "Democrat union guy" in Pennsylvania argued Republicans now offered more to working-class people.

But no single group of people in the US, or in Australia for that matter, is a monolith.

So many of the Americans I've met over the past few years have had thoughtful, and often very personal, political views, driven largely by their own life experiences.

And if Harris had won, I'd likely be reflecting on discussions we'd had with voters who cared deeply about abortion rights, or with women of colour who desperately wanted to see themselves reflected in the nation's highest office.

What is clear at this point is that what had been tipped to be a very close election turned out to be a resounding victory for the man voted out of the White House only four years ago.

Americans have spoken. They'll get another chance to do so in four years' time.