Donald Trump stunned the political world in 2016 when he became the first person without government or military experience ever to be elected president of the United States. His four-year tenure in the White House revealed extraordinary fissures in American society but left little doubt that he is a figure unlike any other in the nation’s history.
The Senate had a test vote this week that cast deep doubt on the prospects for convicting former President Donald Trump on the impeachment charge now pending against him. Without a two-thirds majority for conviction, there will not be a second vote in the Senate to bar him from future federal office.
Also this week, Politico released a Morning Consult poll that found 56% of Republicans saying that Trump should run again in 2024. As he left Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, he said he expected to be "back in some form."
So will he seek a comeback? And if he does, what are his chances of returning to the White House?
History provides little guidance on these questions. There is little precedent for a former president running again, let alone winning. But since when has the lack of precedent bothered Donald Trump?
1/28/21 by NPR
Web player: https://podcastaddict.com/episode/118398289
Episode: https://play.podtrac.com/npr-381444908/edge1.pod.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/fa/2021/01/20210128_fa_fapodthurs.mp3?awCollectionId=381444908&awEpisodeId=961636383&orgId=1&d=2853&p=381444908&story=961636383&t=podcast&e=961636383&size=45546408&ft=pod&f=381444908
‘Washington Post’ reporter Craig Timberg suggests some in the QAnon movement will become even more extreme now that Trump, their “messiah,” has left office. “There is a real danger that what we’ll see is a somewhat smaller but maybe more fervent and maybe more hateful and maybe more stealthy remnant that remains a force in our political life for years to come,” Timberg says. We talk about the impact of Trump’s ban from social media, the inception of the conspiracy theory/extremist group, and how the movement is responding to a new administration.
QAnnon is such a fascinating phenomenon as its really a bizarre cult. It seems like a vast group of people who suffer from mental illness or at least somebody playing on certain people’s troubled emotions.
What can we do as a society about this? It really is unclear as folks have freedom of conscience and speech but it sure seems like a lot of good lives are being destroyed by this predatory organization.
Most of the Americans surveyed in a poll released early Wednesday said that President Trump failed to "Make America Great Again," his signature campaign promise and slogan, during his four years in office.
In the Politico-Morning Consult survey, released as President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office at noon, 57 percent said Trump "definitely" or "probably" did not make the country "great again during his time as president." Approximately 4 in 10 — 39 percent — said he definitely or probably did, while 4 percent were undecided.
One flip side to all of this: While deplatforming can reduce Trump’s overall reach, it could certainly make his remaining followers more ardent. Watching the most powerful technology companies in the world act at the same time, if not in unison, against onald Trump has, for his followers, likely bolstered his claim that tech companies were working against him — and his followers.
In this case, Holt says, “A base of voters that’s been told that there’s a global tech industry conspiracy against them will likely be more hardened in their beliefs - when they see what’s happened to Trump. “And if Trump was right about that, was he right about the election stuff?"
Which gets at what we really ought to care about when we make predictions about what happens to Trump’s reach in his post-Twitter era: What happens to the people he used to reach? Regardless of whether they follow him to a different platform, they’re still going to hear from … somebody on mainstream social media. And if it’s not Trump, who’s going to fill that void?
Trump touted many of what he sees as his main accomplishments during his four years in office in a farewell video he released Tuesday. He named conservative judges to fill federal court vacancies, cut taxes and regulations, negotiated the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, slapped tariffs on imports of Chinese goods, built more than 400 miles of border wall, invested in the military, and sped up development of vaccines for the coronavirus.
But in the end, says presidential historian Michael Beschloss, Trump's legacy is likely to be eclipsed by what he did after he lost to Biden, culminating in the insurrection. Can The Senate Try An Ex-President? Law Can The Senate Try An Ex-President? Republicans Wonder How, And If, They Can Pull The Party Back Together Politics Republicans Wonder How, And If, They Can Pull The Party Back Together
"[It's] hard to think of any good he might have done that would outshine that damning verdict," Beschloss said.
After Trump lost the election, some of his allies had sought to try to help him find a way to continue his "America irst" movement by focusing on a new role as Republican kingmaker.
Instead, he dove deeply down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories about widespread election fraud, shook U.S. confidence in free and fair elections that underpin American democracy, pushed scores of half-baked court challenges, and badgered Republicans — from local officials to Pence — to overturn results.