Along with being named TIME magazine’s person of the year, President-elect Donald Trump has also received the accolade of being named Financial Times’ Person of the Year. Now, to be honest, some of the coverage he receive in the piece is questionable as it really seems as if the publication doesn’t like the man, but nonetheless, this is an admission of his being the most important political figure of our era.
In the report, the FT points out that when Trump walked up the steps of Air Force One on January 20, 2021, nobody thought he would ever set foot in the White House again. People, especially liberals, believed it was the end of his era. Not many of his GOP colleagues showed up to see him off either. And Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, the top dog in the Senate for Republicans at the time, referred to him as a “despicable human being.” Add to that how many right-of-center news networks tried to essentially make him disappear. I mean, someone in that situation couldn’t possibly make a comeback, right?
Wrong.
In fact, Trump made the greatest political comeback in history. He won the 2024 election by taking the Electoral College, the popular vote, and all seven swing-states. That’s incredible. Especially when you realize the position that Trump was in at the time.
Trump’s rebound since then is the most dramatic comeback in modern US history — and arguably since the republic’s founding. Only once before, with Grover Cleveland in 1892, has a US president been returned to office for non-consecutive terms. The Financial Times made Trump its “Person of the Year” in 2016. This year Trump is again the FT’s pick because of the remarkable nature of his return to power. It is no longer possible to dismiss Trump as a blip.
At home, Trump 2.0 promises a new era of sweeping deregulation and tax cuts. The president’s vow to personify the Maga base’s appetite for retribution against the liberal elites — universities, the mainstream media and “woke” America in general — heralds a profound shift to the cultural right. Abroad, Trump also vows a new iconoclasm. For the so-called “axis of upheaval” of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, Trump’s return could be the opportunity of a generation, although he remains unpredictable. Trump sees the world as a jungle in which the US has been taken for a ride by freeloading allies. The future of Nato is hanging by a thread.
Longtime political collaborator and supporter Roger Stone said that we are now living in the age of Trump. He then pointed out that one day in the future, historians will look back at 2024 as the start of a brand new era, just like they did back in 1932 when Roosevelt’s New Deal was established or in 1968 when Richard Nixon ushered in the “New Right.”
It’s a comeback that was partially made possible by the horrific policies of the Biden-Harris administration which acted like a torpedo and started sinking the ship of the United States, particularly economically speaking. Trump then presented himself as a cure for what was ailing America and since we had four years of him in the White House already, people believe he’ll do what he says he’s going to do. He stands up for values and principles that are from a saner time in our history.
What will Trump 2.0 mean for the world? At his first inauguration in 2017, Trump spoke of the “American carnage” caused by globalisation and China. During his first term, he also threatened to abandon Nato over “unpaid dues” by some of its European members. This time he brings similar threats but with more teeth. He has also promised to solve the Russian war on Ukraine “within 24 hours”. Though he has appropriated Ronald Reagan’s slogan of “peace through strength”, that gives little guidance to what he will do in practice. His parallel pledge of “America First” covers the opposite end of the geopolitical spectrum.
Trump is an intriguing individual. He also is a man of deep conviction who has withstood numerous attempts on his life, his political career, and even prosecutions. The kind of obstacles you have to overcome to get where this man is today are usually insurmountable. But he managed to do the impossible. Let’s hope we reap the benefits of his efforts.