Star of his own show Trump's path back to power

Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 US presidential election was described as a leap into the political unknown.

- David Smith

The same cannot be said this time. America knew Trump was a convicted criminal, serial liar and racist demagogue who four years ago attempted to overthrow the government. It still voted for him.

Future historians will marvel at how Trump rose from the political dead. When he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden, people gathered outside the White House to celebrate, brandishing signs that said, "Bon Voyage", "Democracy wins!", "You're fired!", "Trump is over" and "Loser". There was a tone of finality, a sense that, after four gruelling years, this particular national nightmare was finished.

Then came Trump's ultimate disgrace, the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021. He seemed at peace with the idea that his own vice-president, Mike Pence, might be hanged by the rampaging mob. He had finally gone too far. "Count me out," Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, once a devout Trump loyalist, said in an impassioned speech on the Senate floor.

But the political obituary writers forgot that Trump, now 78, is the luckiest man in the world. A series of opportunities to snuff out his political career, banishing him to golf courses in Florida for the rest of his days, were squandered.

Trump was impeached, for the second time, by the House of Representatives. At his Senate trial, Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who has called Trump "stupid" and "despicable", could have instructed his colleagues to convict, barring him from running for office again. But he failed to do so and Trump was acquitted.

Trump immediately began regathering political strength. Representative Kevin McCarthy, who had initially denounced him, made a pilgrimage to Mar-aLago and bowed the knee. From that moment on, it was clear the Republican party was still the Trump party. Not even electoral defeat and its violent aftermath could break the fever.