How Trump won a second term as president in 2024

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Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump waves as he walks with former first lady Melania Trump at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. / AP

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — In one of his final rallies, at the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York, former President Donald Trump delivered a ramped-up version of his typical stump speech, promising “the strongest economy, the most secure borders and safest cities.”

He also railed against adversaries he sees as “the enemy from within,” and described his opponent, Vice President Harris, as a bad person with a “low IQ.”

“We’re running against something far bigger than Joe [Biden] or Kamala [Harris] and far more powerful than them, which is a massive, vicious radical-left machine that runs today’s Democrat party,” Trump told the crowd.

In his return to power, Trump defied so many expectations, surviving repeated scandals and multiple indictments. He is the first convicted felon to win the White House.

Trump’s overall closing focus on the economy and immigration ultimately resonated with enough Americans — more than the message delivered by Harris, who called for unity and warned that Trump was a “petty tyrant” who was obsessed with revenge.

Trump doubled down on his hard-line border stance, using increasingly dehumanizing language to describe immigrants, accusing them of poisoning the blood of the country and falsely claiming a Venezuelan street gang was taking over the country.

The election results show that Americans were less concerned about Trump’s rhetoric and instead longed for a change. Polling just before Election Day showed Harris was not able to seize the change mantle as part of the Biden administration.

Many experts cite out-of-control inflation midway through the Biden administration’s term as key to Harris’ downfall. While inflation waned, prices remained higher than when Trump was in office.

Voters like Dale Roberts in Georgia saw Harris as an extension of President Biden.

“Harris has got the same policies that Biden did. There's no two ways about it,” said the 67-year-old former state trooper. “No matter how she lies or tries to get out of it, she can't wiggle out of it. She should have changed the policies or tried to change policies while she was vice president.”

As he did in 2016, Trump seemed to galvanize an army of working-class white voters this election cycle, particularly men. Exit polls also indicated that he eroded support with key groups for Democrats, including Latinos and Black men.

In the end, Trump’s victory may have simply come down to an old political cliché: “It’s the economy, stupid.”

“Ultimately what it says about President Trump’s win is that people are more willing to vote for their pocketbook,” said Republican pollster Jon McHenry. “They say, ‘I think the democracy criticisms are overblown and I'm going to vote for my pocketbook because I know that that's not overblown.’”

Trump was helped by the rising border crossings early in the Biden administration that drew outcry, not just from Republican, but also Democratic governors and mayors who blasted the Biden administration for its immigration policies along the border.

Some thought divisions within the GOP, including the high-profile defection of major party leaders such as former Rep. Liz Cheney, would prove fatal to Trump.

But Harris also struggled to articulate a clear vision for the future of the country, beyond pushing people to vote against Trump.

“Donald Trump has spent a decade trying to keep the American people divided and afraid of each other. That’s who he is,” said Harris, during a high- profile speech in front of the White House. “But America, I am here tonight to say: That’s not who we are.”

But Biden didn’t do her any favors of promoting unity when, in the final days of the race, he appeared to call Trump’s supporters “garbage.” The White House tried to clean up the muddled remark, arguing the president was talking specifically about one comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, who when speaking at Trump’s New York City rally called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”

But the damage was done. Trump stoked the outrage of his supporters by donning an orange reflective vest and taking questions from the press while sitting in a Trump-branded garbage truck before his rally in Green Bay, Wis., which he then wore to his rally.

Instead of running away from his scandals, Trump embraced his legal problems and used them to reinforce one of his core messages: that the system is rigged, and against conservatives in particular.

He ramped up his threats to go after political opponents, even suggesting that he could use the military to address “the enemy from within.”

He relished delivering the kind of red-meat speech that his die-hard fans will wait hours in the hot sun to see.

“I like to be nice and careful,” Trump said at a rally in Duluth, Ga. “And then I decide, am I better off being careful or really entertaining people? And I usually decide on the side of entertainment. And then, I have fun.”