Trump’s Unexpected Comeback
In a remarkable turn of events that ignores the usual political common sense, Donald Trump has won a second presidential term in the United States, overcoming Vice President Kamala Harris in what turned out to be a very close election. This dramatic happening in the American body politic, rocking the scene this week, raises many important questions, among them: What do the American people want? What is behind this longing for some kind of political identity? Is Trump really the Man of the Hour, or is he just the best way for a lot of people to express their discontent with the whole political setup?
This article will maintain that Trump’s unlikeliest return is not just a show of his personal charm or political cleverness, but instead a display of the intense dissatisfaction of many American voters who now back him. It attempts to get at the heart of why so many Americans rally to him even as he faces extraordinary levels of legal jeopardy. And in so doing, it may well reflect where American democracy is heading and what it’s becoming.
The Impact of Indictments on Trump’s Campaign
Trump’s possible return to the White House carries serious ramifications. In a recent Gallup poll, around 70% of us said the country is heading in the wrong direction. This discontent has, of late, really found its voice, with Trump positioned at the front of the populist parade. His candidacy is now a given, and unlike former President Jimmy Carter, who is out of the running, Trump isn’t on a charitable mission. He’s attempting to grab as much of the limelight for himself as he can. Political analyst Dr. Susan H. Greenfield (“Trump”) says this about the man and his prospects.
The presidency of Donald Trump is a controversial story. I consider it to be a story of resilience and a strategic path taken to the office. After January 6, 2021, most Republicans seemed to be parting company with Trump, as they viewed him to be more of a liability than an asset. But then Trump started to get indicted—first by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, then by the Southern District of Florida, and then by other prosecutors. Far from sinking him, though, these legal problems have propelled Trump toward the presidency again. They work as a narrative—in some quarters, at least—that he is the subject of a very corrupt political establishment that is trying to take him out and that is using the office of the president, in part, to do so.
Strategic Campaigning Amidst Challenges
The crux of Trump’s success is his simple, albeit effective, method of framing himself as a wronged party—his constant cry of “victim.” Were Trump to try and earn a living (or, rather, ceaselessly campaign) as a regular, everyday human (and not a cartoonishly wealthy “sycophant of privilege”), I would suspect that he wouldn’t know how to play the part of the put-upon peasant. Yet that has become his act, and it has earned him the loyalty of people who might not otherwise have backed him. His ever-growing, ever-dividing, and ever-unifying blend of rhetoric and illusion has, somewhat to my surprise, secured my place as Would-Be Trump, Part II.
In contrast to the earlier campaigns marked by a lack of coherence, Trump’s 2024 electoral attempt has thus far had the appearance of a well-oiled, if not somewhat unexciting, machine. He is running in a rather unfocused way against Joe Biden, who is still the sitting president and whose administration is apparently roiling onward through a number of crises. Harris is the first presidential candidate to report for duty in the 2020 campaign; she isn’t much talked about as an SD through late 2023 and into 2024. Yes, Trump used the opportunity to be critical of Harris when she emerged to talk about the climate situation and what the Big Three have been up to. But Harris is doing the work a VP candidate is supposed to do in a pre-Campaign 2024.
Harris’s Nomination and Its Effects on the Election
Trump’s resurgence signifies the amped-up and keystone break in the median American political culture from the late 20th century to the early 21st (in terms of both Of/By/For the People)—a break that has occurred (allegedly) half because of Trump’s substance, half because of his style. Nihilism in politics? More like street fighting, Olympic-sport-style, in-your-face thrills. American politics now comes armed with an alluring break-from-the-zero-sum-past promise, played out (with much fanfare and irony) in the unlikeliest places: on the streets of New York, within the precincts of the Halls of Justice, and on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.
Furthermore, while the rhetoric of this figure may seem, at first glance, to cloud the political debate, in fact, it serves a portion of the populace very well. Nearly 60% of Republicans, according to the Pew Research Center, see a media that is biased against their man. For many, his reascendance punctuates a shift to something else, that we can’t quite put our fingers on, in America’s political life, while reminding us that normal isn’t really normal anymore. Push back any electoral vine on this figure’s behalf, and you are, in fact, pushing back against the increasingly trumped-up base of a figure who is as yet unaccounted for in modern political life.
To sum up, Donald Trump’s surprise return to the presidency is not just a political weirdness; it expresses the fundamental discontent with American politics that so many citizens feel. Many voters are frustrated with many aspects of our political system, and Trump presents what seems at times like a caricature of our political establishment—he makes it easy to see political elites, both Republican and Democrat, as part of the problem. If he succeeds in coming back, it might point to what could be painted as a poor electoral judgment by the American electorate—a moment when sloganeering wins out over substance in the political contest—an era of Trump. But if he comes back, it also might give light to the anti-Trump dimming within a Republican Party once resistant to painting him as a political liability.