Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

American titan: inside Donald Trump’s remarkable political comeback

issue 09 November 2024

Palm Beach, Florida

Donald Trump’s bid to take back the White House has been triumphant. It is a decisive victory and even Trump’s bitterest enemies should recognise him for what he is: an American titan, the most extraordinary politician of our time. He has just pulled off arguably the biggest comeback in US history – a feat greater even than Richard Nixon’s Lazarus-like return in 1968.

To understand the scale of his victory, recall how weakly he began. On 15 November 2022, when Trump launched his now-triumphant bid to regain the presidency, he did not seem himself. His formal campaign announcement, delivered in the ballroom of his club in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, lacked the zing of his famous entry into the 2016 race, when he floated down the escalator of Trump Tower in New York.

The Trump of 2022 had countless legal problems and he’d been widely blamed for the Republican party’s disappointing performance in the mid-term elections.

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