Book of the day: 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America
Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
Book of the day: 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America
Victory: Donald Trump saw his rival Kamala Harris as a chance to play the race card. Photos / Supplied / Getty Images
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.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NZ Herald
37 minutes ago
- NZ Herald
Trade on agenda as Trump lands in Scotland for diplomacy and golf
Trump is also due to meet UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer during the trip. US President Donald Trump boards Air Force One bound for Scotland. Photo / Getty Images He said the meeting would be 'more of a celebration than a workout', appearing to row back on previous comments that a bilateral trade deal struck in May needed 'fine tuning'. 'The deal is concluded,' he told reporters on the tarmac at Prestwick. But the unpredictable American leader appeared unwilling to cede to a UK request for reduced steel and aluminium tariffs. Trump has exempted British exports from blanket 50% tariffs on both metals, but the fate of that carve-out remains unclear. 'If I do it for one, I have to do it for all,' Trump said in Washington before embarking on his flight, when asked if he had any 'wiggle room' for the UK on the issue. The international outcry over the conflict in Gaza may also be on the agenda, as Starmer faces growing pressure to follow French President Emmanuel Macron and announce that Britain will also recognise a Palestinian state. Protests Trump is due to return to the UK in September for a state visit – his second – at the invitation of King Charles III, which promises to be lavish. During a 2023 visit, Trump said he felt at home in Scotland, where his mother Mary Anne MacLeod grew up on the remote Isle of Lewis before emigrating to the United States at age 18. 'He's original, he does things the way he wants to. I think a lot of our politicians could take a good leaf out of his book,' 45-year-old Trump fan Lisa Hart told AFP as she waited to see his plane touch down. But the affection between Trump and Scotland is not always mutual. In this photo from February 2000, Donald Trump (left) – a real estate developer at the time – and his future wife, former model Melania Knauss, financier Jeffrey Epstein (now deceased) and Ghislaine Maxwell pose at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. Epstein and Maxwell were in later years convicted of sex trafficking offences. Photo / Getty Images Residents, environmentalists and elected officials have voiced discontent over the Trump family's construction of a new golf course, which he is expected to open before he departs the UK on Tuesday. Police Scotland, which is bracing for mass protests in Edinburgh and Aberdeen as well as close to Trump's golf courses, have said there will be a 'significant operation across the country over many days'. Scottish First Minister John Swinney, who will also meet Trump during the visit, said the nation 'shares a strong friendship with the United States that goes back centuries'. Trump has also stepped into the sensitive debate in the UK about green energy and reaching net zero, with Aberdeen being the heart of Scotland's oil industry. In May, he wrote on his Truth Social platform that the UK should 'stop with the costly and unsightly windmills' as he urged incentivising drilling for oil in the North Sea. US discontent The trip to Scotland puts physical distance between Trump and the latest twists in the case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the wealthy financier accused of sex trafficking who died in prison in 2019 before facing trial. In his heyday, Epstein was friends with Trump and others in the New York jet-set, but the President is now facing backlash from his own Maga supporters who demand access to the Epstein case files. Many support a conspiracy theory under which 'deep state' elites protected rich and famous people who took part in an Epstein sex ring. But Trump is urging his supporters to move on from the case. The Wall Street Journal, which published an article detailing longstanding links between Trump and the sex offender, is being punished by the White House. Its reporting team plan to travel to Scotland on their own and join the White House press pool but it has now been denied a seat on Air Force One for the flight home. While Trump's family has undertaken many development projects worldwide, the President no longer legally controls the family holdings. However, opponents and watchdog groups have accused him of having many conflicts of interest and using his position as US President to promote private family investments, especially abroad. – Agence France-Presse
Otago Daily Times
4 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Councillor brushes off Israeli woman's hate crime accusation
Nandor Tanczos A Whakatāne district councillor says he was both surprised and amused to learn from police he had been accused of a hate crime by a woman in Tel Aviv, Israel. On July 13, Whakatāne-Ōhope ward councillor Nandor Tanczos shared a link on his personal Facebook page to an online petition calling for United Nations special rapporteur Francesca Albanese and the doctors of Gaza to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. The United States imposed sanctions on Ms Albanese, an outspoken critic of Israel's military offensive in Gaza, this month. Mr Tanczos said the petition was created in the wake of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's nomination of US President Donald Trump for the prize. The prize is awarded annually to the person who has "done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses". Mr Tanczos said he had also posted some "anti-genocide stuff" about the war in Gaza. The councillor regularly shares news articles, opinion pieces and his own views on the conflict via his personal Facebook page. He said he was contacted through his Facebook page by a woman in Tel Aviv who accused him of anti-Semitism and said she had two children in the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) who were "good people". Mr Tanczos responded to her, explaining he had nothing against Jewish people, only against the current actions being taken in Gaza by the IDF. Three days later, he said he received a courtesy call from the Whakatāne police. "The woman rang them from Tel Aviv to complain about my social media posts." Mr Tanczos said he was surprised to learn that opposing what he believed to be genocide was a hate crime in her eyes. He said he was assured by the police officer that phoned him they had looked into his online activity and informed the complainant no crime had been committed. "The police were great. It was just a courtesy call to let me know what had happened. It actually made me laugh to think that someone from Tel Aviv would go as far as reporting me to the New Zealand Police about this." Mr Tanczos said the experience would not stop him from expressing his opinions on Facebook. "I don't have any hesitation in denouncing Israel's actions in Gaza. I'm not anti-Semitic." Police were not available to comment but a senior media adviser from police national headquarters said she did not think such complaints were common. - By Diane McCarthy ■LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
RNZ News
5 hours ago
- RNZ News
Netanyahu, Trump appear to abandon Gaza ceasefire negotiations with Hamas
US President Donald Trump (R) and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu take questions during a press conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on 4 February, 2025. Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump appeared to abandon Gaza ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, both saying it had become clear that the Palestinian militants did not want a deal. Netanyahu said Israel was now mulling "alternative" options to achieve its goals of bringing its hostages home from Gaza and ending Hamas rule in the enclave, where starvation is spreading and most of the population is homeless amid widespread ruin. Trump said he believed Hamas leaders would now be "hunted down", telling reporters: "Hamas really didn't want to make a deal. I think they want to die. And it's very bad. And it got to be to a point where you're going to have to finish the job." The remarks appeared to leave little to no room, at least in the short term, to resume negotiations for a break in the fighting, at a time when international concern is mounting over worsening hunger in war-shattered Gaza. French President Emmanuel Macron, responding to the deteriorating humanitarian situation, announced that Paris would become the first major Western power to recognise an independent Palestinian state . Britain and Germany said they were not yet ready to do so but later joined France in calling for an immediate ceasefire. British Prime Minister Keith Starmer said his government would recognise a Palestinian state only as part of a negotiated peace deal. Trump dismissed Macron's move. "What he says doesn't matter," he said. "He's a very good guy. I like him, but that statement doesn't carry weight." Israel and the United States withdrew their delegations on Thursday from the ceasefire talks in Qatar, hours after Hamas submitted its response to a truce proposal. Sources initially said on Thursday (local time) that the Israeli withdrawal was only for consultations and did not necessarily mean the talks had reached a crisis. But Netanyahu's remarks suggested Israel's position had hardened overnight. US envoy Steve Witkoff said Hamas was to blame for the impasse, and Netanyahu said Witkoff had got it right. Senior Hamas official Basem Naim said on Facebook that the talks had been constructive, and criticised Witkoff's remarks as aimed at exerting pressure on Israel's behalf. "What we have presented - with full awareness and understanding of the complexity of the situation - we believe could lead to a deal if the enemy had the will to reach one," he said. Mediators Qatar and Egypt said there had been some progress in the latest round of talks. They said suspensions were a normal part of the process and they were committed to continuing to try to reach a ceasefire in partnership with the US. The proposed ceasefire would suspend fighting for 60 days, allow more aid into Gaza, and free some of the 50 remaining hostages held by militants in return for Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel. It has been held up by disagreement over how far Israel should withdraw its troops and the future beyond the 60 days if no permanent agreement is reached. Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right national security minister in Netanyahu's coalition, welcomed Netanyahu's step, calling for a total halt of aid to Gaza and complete conquest of the enclave, adding in a post on X: "Total annihilation of Hamas, encourage emigration, (Jewish) settlement." International aid organisations say mass hunger has now arrived among Gaza's 2.2 million people , with stocks running out after Israel cut off all supplies to the territory in March, then reopened it in May but with new restrictions. The Israeli military said on Friday (local time) it had agreed to let countries airdrop aid into Gaza. Hamas dismissed this as a stunt. "The Gaza Strip does not need flying aerobatics, it needs an open humanitarian corridor and a steady daily flow of aid trucks to save what remains of the lives of besieged, starving civilians," Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, told Reuters. Gaza medical authorities said nine more Palestinians had died over the past 24 hours from malnutrition or starvation. Dozens have died in the past few weeks as hunger worsens. Israel says it has let enough food into Gaza and accuses the United Nations of failing to distribute it, in what the Israeli foreign ministry called on Friday "a deliberate ploy to defame Israel". The United Nations says it is operating as effectively as possible under Israeli restrictions. United Nations agencies said on Friday that supplies were running out in Gaza of specialised therapeutic food to save the lives of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition. United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher also has demanded that Israel provide evidence for its accusations that staff with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs were affiliated with Hamas, according to a letter seen by Reuters. The ceasefire talks have been accompanied by continuing Israeli offensives. Palestinian health officials said Israeli airstrikes and gunfire had killed at least 21 people across the enclave on Friday, including five killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City. In the city, residents carried the body of journalist Adam Abu Harbid through the streets wrapped in a white shroud, his blue flak jacket marked PRESS draped across his body. He was killed overnight in a strike on tents housing displaced people. Mahmoud Awadia, another journalist attending the funeral, said the Israelis were deliberately trying to kill reporters. Israel denies intentionally targeting journalists. Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas-led fighters stormed Israeli towns near the border, killing some 1200 people and capturing 251 hostages on 7 October, 2023. Since then, Israeli forces have killed nearly 60,000 people in Gaza, health officials there say, and reduced much of the enclave to ruins. - Reuters
