Four years prior, on Inauguration Day, a resentful Donald Trump departed Washington with a simple send-off at Joint Base Andrews.
“We shall return in some capacity,” the twice-impeached, electorally-defeated president stated in a somewhat ambiguous promise, prior to boarding a plane to Florida and entering a sort of exile at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
At that moment, it appeared that his involvement in presidential politics had concluded.
But Donald Trump was not someone to disappear into insignificance.
Now, his remarkable and unlikely political resurgence will be complete when he is inaugurated on Monday.
“Trump is one of a kind,” stated veteran Republican pollster Whit Ayres. “He is an exceptional figure in American politics, and he has had a remarkable impact on our entire political landscape. There is no one who even comes close to his capability to achieve what he has done. ”
Trump is merely the second president in United States history, following Grover Cleveland in 1892, to secure election for a non-consecutive second term.
He will be the first individual with a felony conviction.
Overall, he has faced criminal indictment on four occasions, one of which led to the historic conviction of a former president by a jury comprised of his contemporaries. During the 2020 campaign, he was found guilty on 34 felony charges related to a payment for silence made to an adult film star during the 2016 presidential election.
“We have not witnessed a point in American history where a president with such a troubled past has been re-elected after serving a prior term,” stated Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston and co-developer of the Presidential Greatness Project.
Despite his legal issues, Trump engaged in a prolonged campaign for the presidency that resulted in sitting President Joe Biden unexpectedly withdrawing his reelection campaign 100 days prior to Election Day, while Vice President Kamala Harris ascended to the forefront of the Democratic ticket.
Trump also faced two assassination attempts, including surviving a remarkably close encounter at a rally in Pennsylvania in July that left him injured from a bullet wound to his right ear and resulted in the death of one of his supporters.
Approximately 48 hours later, he was greeted like a hero at the Republican National Convention as he entered the arena with a bandage on that ear and his fist held high in the air.
“He’s entering 2025 with a significantly more robust candidacy compared to when he approached his initial administration,” stated Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist who counseled Trump’s 2016 transition team.
After Leaving White House
When he left the White House in 2021, Trump was regarded as somewhat of a pariah within the Republican Party. Ten House Republicans cast their votes to impeach him regarding the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U. S. Capitol, although he was subsequently acquitted by the Senate in a narrow vote. Senator Mitch McConnell, the long-serving Republican leader, explicitly indicated that Trump would face accountability in the courts.
Trump declared his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election in November 2022, merely days following the Republican Party’s underwhelming results in the midterm elections. A number of Trump’s chosen candidates were defeated in that round, raising doubts about his continuing influence.
He did not conduct a rally until March 2023, at which point his ominous campaign language first appeared. He declared that the nation would be ruined if he did not triumph.
Then, shortly thereafter, he encountered his initial indictment in the New York hush money matter. That summer, he was indicted in three additional cases, two federal and one state. He asserted that he had done nothing wrong.
Yet, although surveys indicated that numerous Americans considered the charges to be significant, Trump did not experience a substantial decline in 2024 polling.
In reality, Republicans largely united in support of him, claiming the investigations were a reflection of a politicized justice system. Supporters also expressed they had no reservations about endorsing him.
And although over a dozen GOP contenders initiated challenges to Trump, featuring prominent figures such as Florida’s Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence, none created a meaningful impact.
His political Re-emergence
Polls indicated an exceptionally close competition between Harris and Trump after she was named the Democratic nominee due to Biden’s choice to step down, a decision driven by increasing Democratic worry after his stumbling debate performance.
A chaotic 10-week race to Election Day followed, during which Trump intensified his personal insults directed at Harris and all of his political rivals.
At certain moments, his sinister, spiteful tone worried Republican strategists, but his focus on inflation and border policy also turned out to be an effective strategy for drawing in voters who were extremely dissatisfied with the condition of the economy.
“You combine a more advantageous pre-pandemic Trump economy, an uncontrolled border, and a liberal perspective that seems to be prevailing in numerous institutions, and you have the foundation of a Trump winning coalition,” stated Ayres, the experienced GOP pollster.
“Trump achieved an astounding political resurgence because he concentrated on the issues that America was confronting concerning inflation and immigration,” Bonjean stated. “He was connecting with voters in a manner that the Harris campaign wasn’t able to achieve.”
Not only did Trump regain the presidency, but he will also have Republican control of Congress for a minimum of two years. Additionally, some of the wealthiest people globally, such as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, will be alongside Trump during his inauguration.
Trump has referred to the victory as a “mandate” for his plans, which encompass goals such as the large-scale deportation of undocumented immigrants, introducing new tariffs on trading partners, and reforming the civil service.
But Bonjean, a former senior aide to the GOP leadership in both the Senate and House, cautioned that a Republican trifecta doesn’t imply it will be “easy” to fulfill Trump’s most ambitious promises due to the slim margins of the majorities.
Still, he was convinced that Trump was resolute in wanting to accomplish it all within the next four years.
“He is unconcerned about the manner in which the legislation gets to him,” Bonjean remarked. “He wants to project the image of a powerful president, advancing his key agenda items into law.”
“This will genuinely be the golden era of America,” Trump remarked on election evening.
History will judge that vow.
However, on this Inauguration Day, there will be no question — Trump has returned.
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