Under the Constitution, the President is elected by electors selected by each state legislature, and the electors vote on December 14. If a ticket gets a majority of the votes, then there will be a President-Elect. Otherwise the House of Representatives votes to decide the President and the Senate selects the Vice President. Until then there is a “media favorite” or a “presumed President-Elect”.
For years without a contested election results, the distinction is a fine point that makes no real difference. On the other hand, this year still has multiple contested state results, and several states with very close races are still have a substantial number of votes to count. As in 2000 and 2016, challenges and recounts are likely to occur until at least December 8, which is the “safe harbor” day to resolve disputes.
Recounts have only ever changed at most a hundred or so votes.
In no state will a recount change the results as they currently stand…not even in Georgia.
And as soon as Trump finds out how much recounts cost (the Clinton/Stein Wisconsin recount cost $3.5 million) and he hears from Pence that contributions aren’t flowing in, despite the threatening letters they sent out to their constituents, he’ll probably drop any recounts.