(CLO) From losing the 2020 White House race and suffering numerous consequences, Donald Trump has returned to the pinnacle of power in a spectacular way when he defeated Kamala Harris in this year's US Presidential election.
The promise at the end of the "slope"
When he said goodbye to the White House and Washington, DC, in January 2021, with his reputation severely diminished, Donald Trump hinted at a return.
“Goodbye. We love you. We will be back in some form,” Mr. Trump told supporters at Joint Base Andrews, where he arranged a 21-gun salute as part of his farewell ceremony. “We will see you soon.”
Four years later, he fulfilled his "prophecy".
With a resounding victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, Mr. Trump made an incredible comeback after the 2020 election ended with his supporters violently storming the Capitol after he refused to accept defeat.
Mr. Trump has promised to return as soon as he leaves the White House in January 2021. Photo: USA Today
During the four-year campaign since leaving the White House, Mr. Trump has been widely blamed for the Republican Party's failures, indicted four times, convicted of 34 felony counts... He still faces fines of more than half a billion dollars and the prospect of prison. However, he has consistently denied the above accusations and said that they are just "political revenge".
Mr Trump has even managed to turn his legal troubles into a rallying cry for support. He has tapped into widespread discontent among Americans after years of high inflation. And he has learned to speak in new ways — using podcasts and social media — to send a message to those who feel ignored that he shares their anger at the status quo.
And he did so while surviving three assassination attempts and a surprise and highly-praised Democratic "change of general" strategy, when Mr. Biden handed the election mission to his "vice-general" Kamala Harris.
“This was a campaign of October surprises,” Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita said hours after his win. “When you think about it, whether it was indictments, convictions, assassination attempts, changing the nominee — I mean it was a campaign of firsts on so many different levels.”
"Fight! Fight! Fight!"
For much of the campaign, the indictments against Mr. Trump dominated the American media, making it clear to even the average voter that the convictions were more or less politically motivated, aimed at hindering his re-election — as he himself repeatedly emphasized.
Mr Trump, bloodied and surrounded by agents after being shot in the ear in Pennsylvania in July, still stood up shouting: "Fight, fight, fight!". Photo: Bloomberg
After somewhat brushing aside the impact of a series of legal troubles, Mr. Trump's journey back to the White House went smoothly and smoothly. The debate in late June with President Joe Biden gave him a complete advantage in the race, when Mr. Biden had a forgettable performance when he could not even clearly express the issues and even seemed to fall asleep at times.
And when Mr. Trump arrived at the Republican National Convention to formally accept his party’s nomination, he seemed unstoppable, especially coming just two days after he narrowly escaped death when an assassin shot him in the ear at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania.
After the gunman was killed, Mr. Trump stood up, his face covered in blood, surrounded by Secret Service agents, and raised his fist in the air, shouting, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” as the crowd erupted in cheers. The moment became a rallying cry of unparalleled power for his campaign.
“If you want to make someone a symbol, try throwing them in jail. Try bankrupting them… If you want to make someone a symbol, try killing them,” said Roger Stone, a longtime Republican who has known Trump for 45 years and was pardoned by the former president.
Stick to your strategy
After the assassination attempt, Trump seemed to be on an easy path to victory. But just days later, Democrats, fearing a landslide defeat and panicking that President Biden’s age would prevent him from serving another four years, successfully persuaded him to withdraw, paving the way for Vice President Kamala Harris’s historic upset candidacy.
The surprise appearance of Kamala Harris had Mr. Trump flustered. Photo: LA Times
And the Democratic “change of guard” has really unnerved Mr. Trump. He complained that he spent millions of dollars to defeat President Biden, and now he has to “start all over again” — this time facing a candidate who is not only nearly 20 years younger, embodying the generational change that voters said they wanted, but also a woman who could potentially become the country’s first female president.
But Trump’s campaign did not fundamentally change its strategy after Harris replaced Biden. Instead, they tried to install her as the incumbent, tying her to all of the Biden administration’s most unpopular policies.
Harris fell right into that trap. Asked during an October appearance on “The View” if there was anything she would have done differently over the past four years with Biden, she replied, “Nothing that comes to mind.”
The Trump campaign was delighted by the clip and quickly cut to an ad, believing that Harris had failed to offer a forward-looking agenda that was anything new compared to Biden himself.
Harris has spent much of the final stretch of the campaign also continuing President Biden’s strategy of painting Trump as a fundamental threat to democracy. “But voters have made it clear that they want someone who can make change. They’re not looking back 20 or 30 years. They’re looking back four and five years. And they want that back in the White House,” said longtime Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski.
Efforts to attract new groups of voters
After his 2020 defeat, Mr. Trump’s campaign has worked to expand his appeal beyond the white working-class base that delivered his first victory. The campaign has sought to appeal to young people, black men and Latinos, including many who rarely vote. They have also seized on divisions within the Democratic Party over wars in the Middle East, appealing to both America’s large Jewish and Muslim communities.
Mr. Trump has regained the support of a large number of Muslim and Arab voters. Photo: CNN
In a scene that would have seemed unimaginable eight years ago, Mr. Trump — who called for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the country and later pursued a targeted travel ban — appeared on stage at his final campaign rally with Amer Ghalib, the Arab-American mayor of Hamtramck, Michigan. Days earlier, Mr. Trump had traveled to the predominantly Arab-American city of Dearborn, Michigan, for a campaign stop.
“They see him as the last hope to end these wars in the Middle East and bring peace. And that was very evident when he came to Dearborn,” said Massad Boulos, the father of Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, who leads Mr. Trump’s Arab-American outreach. He noted that Ms. Harris “didn’t even come close to Dearborn.”
While much of his campaign messaging focused on the economy and immigration, Mr. Trump also tried to win over voters with giveaways, promising to end the tip tax, the overtime tax and the Social Security benefit tax.
Mr Trump’s campaign succeeded in its mission, winning over a small but significant number of black and Latino voters and forging a new working-class coalition that crossed racial lines.
“They come from all sides: union, non-union, African-American, Latino, Asian-American, Arab-American, Muslim-American,” Trump said in his victory speech. “We have everyone, and it’s great. It’s a historic realignment, uniting citizens from all backgrounds around a common core of common sense.”
“Score points” on social networks
The Trump campaign decided early on that it would focus much of its efforts on less likely voters — people who rarely vote and are more likely to get their news from non-mainstream sources.
The image of Mr. Trump serving customers at a McDonald's fast food counter was widely shared on social media and created a positive effect. Photo: New York Post
To reach them, Mr. Trump has launched a podcast campaign, appearing with hosts popular with young people, including Adin Ross, Theo Von and Joe Rogan. He has attended soccer games and UFC fights, where audiences cheered as they were broadcast live on sports channels.
The campaign also produced viral moments. Mr. Trump visited a McDonald’s, where he tended the fryers in an apron and served food to supporters through the drive-through window. Days later, he held a press conference from the passenger seat of a garbage truck, while wearing a janitor’s uniform.
Clips of those appearances have racked up hundreds of millions of views on platforms like TikTok, which Mr. Trump favors despite his attempts to ban the app during his first term. The appearances help highlight a fascinating side of Mr. Trump.
Jaden Wurn, 20, a student at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania who voted for Mr Trump, said he was drawn to the former president in part because of his sense of humour.
“Trump can just talk,” he said. “It can be policy. It can be culture. It can be golf. It can be anything, and he can just sit down and have a nice, relaxed conversation. Be approachable. Tell a few jokes. He’s a funny guy. It’s refreshing.”
Victory Day
As the race entered its final stretch, Mr. Trump’s team continued to project confidence, even as polls showed Ms. Harris leading. They continued to schedule rallies in Democratic states like Virginia and New Mexico, as well as what was arguably the campaign’s most important event: a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York.
President-elect Donald Trump delivers a victory speech on the night of November 5. Photo: The Economist
As the race began, while top aides gathered upstairs in his office at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump spent much of election night chatting with friends and club members, as well as billionaire Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Although aides described him as confident, Mr. Trump kept his eyes on the TVs in the ballroom as he mingled with guests. The tension was understandable. This was more than an election. Mr. Trump was fighting for his freedom. He would be able to put an end to the lawsuits he faced as soon as he took office.
After FOX News reported that he had won much more quickly than expected (the results were determined just two hours after the polls closed), Mr. Trump appeared with his campaign team and family. He declared on Election Day night (November 5): “This day will be remembered forever…”.
Nguyen Khanh
Source: https://www.congluan.vn/hanh-trinh-chien-thang-ly-ky-va-ngoan-muc-cua-ong-donald-trump-post320747.html
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