Donald Trump’s shock return to the White House has delighted his tens of millions of supporters in the US but stunned the rest of the country and much of the fearfully watching world.
Few would have imagined such a scenario when Trump left office in disgrace in January 2021, in the wake of the attack on the Capitol in Washington DC and facing a long list of legal travails.
But his campaign has won back the Oval Office. It was possibly one of the most extreme campaigns in recent history, dogged by racist language, violent rhetoric and a profound sense of grievance. But it resonated with enough people in America to carve out a second Trump term and take the US into unexplored political terrain.
Here are some key moments, issues and events from the campaign:
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1. A low-energy beginning
When Trump launched his campaign from his Florida resort of Mar-a-Lago it surprised many with its low-key feel – and it certainly did not entirely presage the fury and resentment that would come to define it as the campaign played out. Trump’s speech and demeanor were low-energy. “Trump has done this schtick so many times before that he seemed bored by the text,” Axios noted.
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2. Immigration (and racism) became the centerpiece
Continuing from the themes of his presidency, Trump’s campaign made immigration and the US border with Mexico a central plank of his campaign. Using racist and violent language, he and his surrogates painted America as a nation assailed by violent immigrants, often using the language of war and conflict and with little regard for reality. This was especially true when Trump and others inflamed baseless rumors that (legal) Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, were killing their neighbors’ pets to eat them. The lies sparked a civic crisis in the town. But rather than back off, the Trump campaign doubled down on them.
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3. Assassination attempts and an iconic picture
It was the nightmare many feared in America’s nerve-wracking contest. A lone gunman fired on Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania. A bullet grazed Trump’s ear and the would-be assassin appeared to fit the profile of a mass shooter, not a politically motivated killer. But the moment provided an iconic picture of Trump, bloodied but unbowed, raising his fists in the ear and exhorting his supporters to “fight!”. Later in the campaign, only the eagle-eyed skills of a Secret Service agent prevented a second gunman – apparently obsessed with Ukraine’s war – from ambushing Trump at his Florida golf course. Violence had come to the campaign.
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4. New York City rally with a Nazi echo as fascism debate emerges in the race
The Trump campaign’s decision to hold a rally in Madison Square Garden – in the heart of Democratic Manhattan and the site of a infamous Nazi rally in the lead-up to the second world war – felt like one deliberate troll of liberal America. That became especially clear when speaker after speaker used racist language targeting Black Americans, migrants, Latinos and Harris herself. The one vile insult that hit so hard that even the Trump campaign sought to back off it, was from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico a “a floating island of garbage”. The rally also came just as the word “fascism” fully entered into the race as a description of what Trump and his campaign represented.
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5. A refusal to debate after losing to Harris
Trump clearly lost his debate with Harris. The former prosecutor goaded him into losing his temper and starting to rant – something his aides had wanted to avoid and which Joe Biden’s awful performance in his debate had allowed Trump to control. But Harris was no Biden. “You will see during the course of his rallies, he talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter, he will talk about ‘windmills cause cancer’,” Harris goaded. “And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.” No wonder Trump refused a second go-around, despite his repeated talk of winning the fight. It was a claim of victory on the night that only Trump and a few true believers would hold on to. Declining a second debate was the right move.
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6. A Republican convention speech that declined to go for national unity
When Trump took the stage at the Republican national convention it was in the wake of his assassination attempt. The moment galvanised the party into a remarkable display of passion and unity and cemented Trump’s firm grip on the party. But the speech was also seen as a moment for Trump to also pose as a figure trying to unite the nation in the face of such violence. He started strongly, talking of the moment coming under fire. But it did not last long. Trump veered off into the familiar refrain of grievance, complaint, misinformation and a grim view of the state of the nation. On immigrants he said: “[They are] coming from prisons, they’re coming from jails, they’re coming from mental institutions and insane asylums.”
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7. Courting men becomes a theme
One of the fundamental theories of the Trump campaign in its final weeks was that it needed men to vote for him in large numbers. Trump’s political operation sought to activate low-to-mid propensity male voters, particularly young men, with surgical precision. Appearances were booked on podcasts of the “manosphere” like Theo Von, Lex Fridman, Logan Paul and the Nelk Boys. One of the biggest media interviews of the 2024 US electoral cycle was Joe Rogan’s podcast – followed by millions of rapt listeners. Trump spent three hours with Rogan in a rambling conversation that riffed on everything from his desire to be a “a whale psychologist”, to replacing income tax with tariffs and praise for Confederate general Robert E Lee as a “genius”. Endorsements from masculine celebrities like Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre, former Pittsburgh Steelers Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell, and the boxer Jake Paul were also touted aggressively. It put a gender gap in US politics on stark display as Harris sought the backing of women, especially those outraged by the loss of abortion rights.
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8. JD Vance recovers to emerge as an heir
JD Vance’s honeymoon as Trump’s running mate did not last long. The Ohio senator and author of Hillbilly Elegy – an ode to a hardscrabble Appalachian childhood – rapidly became the target of attacks and jokes after his campaign appearances highlighted his apparent social unease and tendency to say odd things, such as claiming Democrats thought Mountain Dew soda was “racist”. His politically extreme views on abortion and other social issues also came to the fore. When Vance faced off against Tim Walz in the vice-presidential debate expectations were low, but Vance surprised all. He turned in an assured, smooth performance that rescued his reputation on the campaign and suddenly sparked talk of Vance 2028.
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9. Elon Musk enters politics as a crucial ally to Trump
Elon Musk, the tech mogul and the world’s richest man, has emerged as a huge force in the US election. As the owner of social media firm X – formerly known as Twitter – that was always likely to happen. But no one really expected Musk to charge so fully into the arms of Trump, campaigning for him in Pennsylvania, repeatedly echoing his talking points and conspiracy theories and coughing up millions of dollars to set up his own ground game in support of the former president in key swing states.
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10. Trump the election denier
Trump – to the dismay of some in his party – never stopped talking about the 2020 election, continuing to deny Joe Biden’s victory despite no basis in fact for that belief. He even suggested late on in the campaign that he should never have left the White House. All of it formed part of a strategy to undermine his supporters’ belief in the fairness of the 2024 contest. For Trump losing was unthinkable, so even the concept of a Harris victory had to be denied ahead of time. The damage such actions have done to broader faith in America’s political institutions is likely enormous and one for historians to study.
