After nearly a decade of party control, Trump gearing up for second term
WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - Election Day 2024 is on the horizon as the Harris and Trump campaigns are making their final pushes to the White House. Americans know Donald Trump well after his first term in office, but questions remain over what a second term might bring for the businessman-turned-celebrity-turned-politician.
Trump is once again making the pitch to Americans he will Make America Great Again. After losing in 2020, Trump did not take that as a message from Americans to leave the political spotlight. Instead, he made another push to get back in the White House built on a foundation of debunked election conspiracies.
His first term finished with a once-in-a-century pandemic and Trump’s unfounded insistence the election was rife with fraud, culminating in an insurrection at the Capitol on January 6.
It capped off an era of tax cuts, immigration crackdowns, and international controversy. After losing and an unceremonious exit, Trump waited until November 2022 to announce he would push for another term.
“There’s something about Donald Trump and his personality that draws people towards him, and it also causes other people in the party to keep their mouths shut about some of his distractions,” said Todd Belt, a political expert from George Washington University.
Belt says Trump easily secured his third nomination in part by instilling fear in opponents. With a fresh campaign for president underway, Trump promised to undo a period of high immigration, inflation, and Democrat control, along with a quest for political retribution.
“If we are to believe what he says, he’s really going to ramp up the politicization of the Justice Department,” said Belt.
His vowed vengeance stemmed in part from his own legal woes, facing four state and federal indictments, and being found guilty in June of 34 felony counts for falsifying business records in New York.
On the campaign trail, Trump also promised mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. And on the economy, he pledged more tax cuts and tariffs on foreign companies that many economists say would hurt consumers and increase the budget deficit.
“But that’s not what people are really thinking about. What really matters to people is how much they’re paying at the grocery store and the gas pump and for rent,” said Belt.
The 2024 election appears closer than the last in the final stretch. Trump is already laying the foundation to once again question election results, as the man still dominating control of his party nearly a decade from his first foray into politics.
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