The remarkable comeback of Donald Trump

Less than four years ago, Donald J. Trump ended his presidency in disgrace.

America was still emerging from the carnage of the Covid pandemic. A million had died from the virus. Millions more were sick. And tens of millions were out of work as a result of the economic and social upheaval caused by the lockdowns.

Considering the dire state of the economy, it's no wonder that President Trump had been defeated in the presidential election of 2020. What's surprising is how close it had actually been.

Despite his mishandling of the pandemic, and public fatigue with four years of 'mean tweets', Trump received more votes than he had in 2016.

But it was not enough to overcome Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who won both the popular vote and the electoral college. Claims of election fraud were tossed out of court. And Trump, who could never see himself as anything other than number one, lost the White House.

The honourable thing to do, the thing all others had done before in American history, would have been to concede graciously and promise a smooth transition.

But Trump never played by the rules of the game. Political norms aren't his thing.

So, he did all he could, right up to the certification of the vote, to find a way to stay in power.

On January 6 2021, his failure to concede led to an angry mob storming the Capitol Building, with chants to 'Hang' Trump's own Vice President, Mike Pence, for his refusal to go along with a cockeyed scheme to send electors back to their states, and to seat a new, pro-Trump group, who would hand him the presidency. It all ended with several dead, and the Congress impeaching him for a second time, on January 13.

Trump, realizing he'd finally gone too far, repudiated the violence and the mayhem, conceded defeat, and promised he would go peacefully on January 20. And go he did: but again, bucking precedent, he did not attend his successor's inauguration.

That seemed to be the end of the Trump political odyssey.

There was no way, people said, he could come back from that.