In the weeks before the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump's approval rating was between 35 and 40 percent.
During his turbulent four years in office, his average approval rating was only about 41%.
No one knows what the next four years have in store. However, as of now, President Trump's approval rating is already well above 50%.
The presidential inauguration in a few weeks will likely not resemble Trump's 2016 ceremony.
During the 2016-2017 transition period, Democratic interests became “disloyal” to voters, resulting in them illegally rejecting the state's popular vote and electing the loser, Hillary Clinton, in its place. A commercial was shown encouraging people to do so.
On the day of his inauguration, large-scale demonstrations greeted President Trump.
Less than four months after taking office, special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to investigate the Russian collusion hoax.
A fruitless 22-month, $40 million investigation found no collusion, but the first two years of the Trump administration were derailed.
What followed the conspiracy maneuver was a consistent effort to undermine the Trump presidency. Two subsequent impeachments, a laptop “disinformation” hoax, a nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, and a suppression of reporting on and questioning the virus' Chinese lab origins. School closures.
In the summer of 2020, the final year of the Trump administration, the chaos of January 6th culminated in 120 days of rioting, arson, looting, assault, and murder.
In contrast, during the 2024-25 Trump transition, he almost took over the presidency. More than 100 foreign leaders have been invited to Mar-a-Lago or bumped elbows to congratulate the newly elected Trump on the phone.
Recall that in 2016, leftists chanted “Logan Act” if President Trump's transition appointees even spoke to foreign officials.
So why has the newly elected Trump become a true cultural hero in 2024 in a way that was unimaginable eight years ago, when the media almost demonized him? I wonder?
For one thing, Trump is now seen as a welcome savior.
Outgoing and unpopular President Joe Biden leaves office with an approval rating of about 36%.
The previous Biden era is now seen as an anomaly.
The left's cultural revolution includes the destruction of borders, the admission of 12 million illegal aliens, nihilistic critical race theory and legal theory, the institutionalization of a third gender, and the mandate of woke/DEI quotas and indoctrination sessions. He advocated fringe policies that had never been seen before.
But Biden inherited from Trump safe borders, economic recovery after the coronavirus quarantine, 1.23% inflation, no wars overseas and cheap energy.
Four years later, the outgoing Biden administration is widely unpopular. Almost all policies vote less than 50%. (Related: Victor Davis Hanson: The Evaporation of Obama's Mystique)
In response, President Trump has promised not only to restore the successes of his first term, but to expand on them.
Second, Trump personally has always been transparent and energetic, eager to talk and meet with anyone, anytime, anywhere.
his energy is non-composition Biden. The change has been welcomed by voters who have been worn down by the past four years of the president's stumbling, wandering, incoherence, inability to think, and the senile fragility of an angry “weed-off.”
Third, Trump is grudgingly admired, even by some of his opponents who once tried and failed to overthrow him.
He has been impeached twice, indicted in civil and criminal courts five times, faced constant legal battles, 95% negative media coverage, attempts to remove him from state ballots, and two assassination attempts. I endured.
But these unprecedented and hostile efforts to end Trump may have only made him stronger and more sympathetic as he is seen as a target by increasingly fervent enemies.
Fourth, Trump expanded the reach of MAGA and permanently branded it as an ecumenical movement that welcomes shared class interests rather than tired old tribal racial and ethnic chauvinism. It became.
Mr. Trump also tapped into disaffected Democrats, independents, and minorities in a way that Democrats could not in the evaporating “Never Trump” impasse.
Thanks to members of Trump's bona fide campaign, including RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, Dana White, and Kid Rock, the left demonizes MAGA Republicans as right-wing aristocrats and laissez-faire capitalists. It became impossible to do so.
Fifth, we find that Biden and Harris' support among legacy media, calcified Hollywood supporters, hardline university faculty, and tech moguls is significantly overestimated.
More popular and dynamic internet influencers, podcasters, bloggers, and maverick entrepreneurs have beaten it.
Sixth, and finally, Mr. Trump himself has proven to be more experienced, thoughtful, and thoughtful than he was in 2016. Trump's team was also more disciplined and street smart, led by his wily chief of staff Susan Wiles.
The past year has been marked by some truly pivotal moments for Trump as a private citizen — posing for a mugshot after being indicted on weapons charges, serving a McDonald's drive-up customer, driving a garbage truck. They got into a taxi, raised their fists and shouted, “Fight! Fight!” Fight, fight” – and after nearly getting his head blown off by a would-be assassin.
Put all this together and you have something that was once unimaginable, with the public trusting a Trump reboot more than a bumbling Biden or an insane and inauthentic Vice President Kamala Harris, and a common extremist agenda. I preferred it.
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About the lighter
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(Victor Davis Hanson is a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for American Greatness. He is a classicist and historian at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and author of “World War II: How the First Global Conflict He is the author of “Fought and Won.'' You can contact him by email at Basic Books.
