WASHINGTON : The day before he left the White House in 2021, Donald Trump vowed to remain a force in U.S. politics. “The movement we started is only just beginning,” he said in a farewell video.
What might have seemed then to be wishful thinking now sounds like a prophecy.
Trump left office a defeated and isolated figure, banned from social media and repudiated by fellow Republicans in his own administration. Congress, shaken by his supporters’ Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, was preparing a second impeachment trial against him.
Trump, 78, returns to the presidency on Monday more powerful than ever. He faces fewer guardrails as he pursues a norm-shattering agenda that is already upending Washington and unsettling the world.
The former real-estate developer, whose first elected office was the White House, now plausibly stands as the defining political figure of the early 21st century.
“He doesn’t look like he was rejected. It looks like his version of Republican politics is as mainstream as it gets,” said Princeton University history professor Julian Zelizer.
