The opening scene: Donald Trump triumphant, basking at his Florida pleasure palace Mar-a-Lago early this year. “We’ve had everybody here,” says the President-elect. “We’ve had Google, we’ve had Facebook, we’ve had Bill Gates, we had Tim Cook, Apple – we’ve had all of them.”
The business titans bring seven-figure cheques to pay for his inauguration. Trump says he always asks his admirers, “Would you have been here if I lost? … They know the answer is no, but they don’t really want to say it. And it would be no if I were them, too.”
This is the story of how the United States reached that moment, starting from a point in 2022 when it wasn’t even certain that Trump would run again. And yes, you know that story already, but the authors – three past or present Washington Post reporters – flesh it out with a wealth of you-are-there detail, delivered with admirable balance.
And, they say, 2024’s result was far from inevitable.
On the Democratic side, a clutch of contenders were planning to kick off their presidential campaigns in late 2022. “No one outside Biden’s inner circle seriously believed he would run. He would be 82 by the end of his first term, and 86 by the end of a second.”
Meanwhile, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was being touted as the Maga movement’s shining hope – a lot like Trump, only more disciplined.
But, “Joe Biden decided to run for re-election by not deciding. He told aides: ‘I’m running until I tell you I’m not.’ And he never told them he wasn’t.”
And Trump’s resolve had been stiffened by the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago, hunting for classified documents. DeSantis was left in the dust after a series of Trump campaign attacks, including a social media post suggesting he had been guilty of grooming teenage girls; no one said anything about playing fair.
Biden soldiered on, sheltered from reality by his loyal, well-paid courtiers, convinced that he alone could defeat Trump as he had before.
When a Democratic congressman dares suggest voters are losing faith, Biden is furious: “I don’t want to hear that crap,” he shouts.
That was during an excruciating Zoom call, with the president mumbling and rambling, sometimes incoherently, as the assembled lawmakers exchanged incredulous messages. “This is worse than the debate,” texts one, referring to Biden’s disastrous performance when he went one on one against Trump.
Biden’s team came up with a list of elder-appropriate rules: check for trip hazards and make him wear sneakers – let’s avoid any slip-ups being caught on camera – use the short staircase when boarding Air Force One, be sure he gets lots of sleep, stick to the teleprompter.
But the gaffes kept coming, from introducing Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “President Putin”, to saying “Vice President Trump” when Biden meant “Vice President Harris”.
By the time dismal polling and rising Democratic Party panic finally persuaded Biden to give up, there were only two months left before early voting started, and 107 days until polling day.
Biden’s withdrawal put Trump in a foul mood. “I have to win two races,” he said. “It’s not fair. I thought it was over.”
Still, it meant he could now play the race card against the new candidate Kamala Harris: “I didn’t know she was black until a number of years go, when she happened to turn black …”
Trump rallies now featured images of turban-wearing men burning an American flag, labelled, “meet your new neighbours if Kamala wins”.
Neither side comes out of this well. Trump is foul-mouthed, emotionally volatile, out for vengeance and always on the make. Once, he asked oil company executives to give him US$1 billion because he’d be good for their industry. The Democrats, on the other hand, are out of touch with voters and disorganised.
Trump has a way of turning adversity to his advantage. Being shot in the ear is God’s way of sending a supportive message, apparently. Even the infamous mugshot was a vote-winning opportunity. He’d carefully practised his facial expression and: “The photo came out with Trump’s signature scowl. He and his advisers thought he’d nailed it.”
Harris, meanwhile, was good on the stumps, a magnet for big crowds, but weighed down by her association with Biden. Moreover, her people never quite worked out what her message was, or how to get it across. Among other weaknesses, the Harris campaign underestimated the power of YouTube influencers, a mistake Trump didn’t make.
Back to the start: January at Mar-a-Lago. That same day, Trump had to appear in a New York court by video link, having been found guilty of paying hush money to a porn star. But now, the judge imposed no penalty.
“It’s over,” said Trump. “No fine. No penalty. No this. It’s actually just a total win.”
2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America, by Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf (Hutchinson Heinemann, $40), is out now.
