What Is the Case for Trump’s Remarkable Political Comeback?

Renowned historian Victor Davis Hanson recently discussed the updated edition of his bestselling book, “The Case for Trump,” with Rob Bluey with The Daily Signal. Hanson shares fresh insights into Donald Trump and his remarkable political comeback. 

The new introduction to the book discusses “the final days of the Trump presidency through late spring 2024.” It chronicles “the unprecedented challenges Trump has faced and his resilience since leaving the White House” – “recent events – from legal battles to media controversies – and their impact on Trump’s political standing.” According to Hanson, “It was really the most remarkable comeback in American political history, even more impressive than Richard Nixon’s phoenix-like rise after losing the gubernatorial election to Pat Brown in 1962.”

Bluey discussed several topics with Hanson, but I found one of them to be more interesting than the others – the “miscalculation on the part of the Left in terms of the lawfare” and why it backfired as it did. Hanson answered as follows:

I think they were too blatant. I think what really got them in trouble was, again, this asymmetrical, the people said, Well, Joe Biden, for 30 years as a senator, took out files. And he never notified anybody, contrary to what he claimed until he appointed Jack Smith as special counsel.

Then, he got worried that somebody might investigate him. So, then he kind of in a false, pseudo-manner came forward and said, “Maybe I have some.” And then the more you learned about it, his ghostwriter was having, had access to those classified files, which he didn’t have with security clearance. And then he destroyed subpoena evidence from Robert Hur. He wanted to get the transcripts and the tapes, and he destroyed them. He was not prosecuted. I think anybody looked at the photos of Joe Biden’s garage compared to Mar-a-Lago saw that it was far less secure. He had more multiple places to put these files.

And finally, that just became overwhelming. People just said, “Well, if Robert Hur thinks he’s guilty, but he’s cognitively unable,” that was very, that was the beginning of this kind of consensus.

Well, if he’s cognitive, unable, and think some things, then he’s cognitively unable to be president. And that kind of trailed on, all the way to the removal of [Biden as candidate].

The same argument arose again. If he’s unable to be a candidate, then he’s unable to be president. And then the kind of the doctoring, these performance art, virtue-signaling way in which they raided Mar-a-Lago, the sort of sloppy rearrangement of the files as if Donald Trump had them all scattered over the floor.

It was just one thing after another. People just kind of said, “These people are out of control.”

And then, the judges especially, they were, whether it was [Judges Juan Marchan or Arthur Engonon], they were partisans. They were Democratic. Their families were Democratic. They had said things in the past.

Then Letitia James and Fani Willis and Alvin Braggs boast that they were going to “get” Trump, the use of that boast for campaign fundraising. I think the American people, finally said, this is, as Trump said, a rigged, rigged series of indictments.

There is much more to the interview. You can find more information at this site.