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Trump's wild ride back to the White House

Posted on by Vanessa
Trump's wild ride back to the White House

When Donald Trump first ran for president in 2016, he cited his ability to “get away with it” as a defining theme of his life story – and bragged that he could shoot someone on New York's Fifth Avenue without losing a single vote .

Eight years later, America's new 47th president looks like Nostradamus, winning the keys to the White House on Wednesday against incredible odds.

He is the most controversial man in the country, narrowly escaping death in an assassination attempt and, at 78, will be the oldest man to occupy the Oval Office in US history.

And that's before you add in the fact that he's out on bail in three criminal jurisdictions and facing gargantuan civil penalties for sexual assault and fraud. Despite his victory, he faces conviction in just a few weeks for nearly three dozen crimes related to his 2016 presidential campaign.

But with his victory over Democrat Kamala Harris, Trump has once again shown that he can defy any political and legal gravity.

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Many thought he wouldn't make it this time.

He ended November last year with an average of 47.4 percent in opinion polls – a number that only moved up one point last year.

Far from moving toward the middle, he continued to publicly praise foreign dictators and threaten his fellow Americans with military reprisals. He reiterated his once-unprecedented, now-characteristic claims that Democrats were trying to rig the election against him.

Trump's longest-serving chief of staff called him a “fascist.”

For most candidates, any of these controversies, let alone the legal issues, would have been career-ending.

But for Trump, controversy is part of the show.

Even an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania that left him covered in blood could not deter the man whose self-portrayal as the ultimate dealmaker has become entrenched in the American psyche.

Now Trump is on the verge of being reinstated as commander in chief of the most powerful military in history, even though he has a criminal record that would bar him from serving as a private in the army.

And his legal problems could disappear if the new president – emboldened by presidential immunity from prosecution – issues pardons, fires federal prosecutors and gets support from a Supreme Court dominated by his allies.

“Enemy from within”

Trump was born wealthy and grew up as a playboy real estate entrepreneur. He surprised the world when he won the presidency in 2016 on a far-right platform against Democratic heavyweight Hillary Clinton.

The Republican's first term began with a somber inaugural address that recalled “American carnage.”

It ended in chaos when he refused to accept his defeat by Joe Biden and then rallied his supporters before storming Congress on January 6, 2021.

In office, Trump has upended every tradition, from the trivial (what was planted in the Rose Garden) to the fundamental (relations with NATO).

Journalists became the “enemy of the people” – a phrase he later changed to “enemy from within” when he called for reprisals against all political opponents.

On the world stage, Trump turned U.S. alliances into transactions as friendly partners like South Korea and Germany were accused of trying to “rip us off.”

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In contrast, he has repeatedly praised – and continues to praise – figures such as Russian President Vladimir Putin, China's Xi Jinping and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

Over time, he increasingly dominated the Republican Party, which dropped all opposition and ultimately won him an acquittal in two impeachment trials.

That loyalty to Trump only deepened after he left the White House, with senior Republicans regularly flocking to see him at his palatial Florida residence and at the dingy Manhattan courthouse where he was indicted on fraud charges this year.

Autocratic drift

Before he rode down the golden escalator of Trump Tower in New York to announce his candidacy for the White House in 2016, Trump was best known as a TV personality.

He was most famous for the ruthless character he played on the reality show “The Apprentice,” as well as for developing luxury buildings and golf resorts and for his wife Melania, a former model.

The political rise was meteoric. However, scholars have noted parallels between its development and those of autocrats in countries where democratic institutions exist only as facades, allowing populist rulers to seize power.

Millions were enthralled by his attacks on politics, his coarse language, his promises to expel illegal immigrants and the gaudy glamor he brought to American workers weakened by globalization and deindustrialization.

At the same time, according to a recent ABC poll, more than half of the country agrees with Trump's top White House adviser, John Kelly, that the tycoon is a fascist.

In office, he relished daily controversy and joked about amending the U.S. Constitution to stay in power indefinitely. As he campaigned for a return to power in 2024, he again called for the founding document to be abrogated.

Trump's allies reject such talks as mere rhetoric.

But Trump broke precedent when he refused to concede defeat in 2020, ultimately unleashing a mob on the U.S. Capitol while his Vice President Mike Pence went into hiding.

Unprecedented – but forgiven by just enough US voters to let the showman get away with it again.

(AFP)

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