In the weeks before the 2016 Trump Electoral College victory, Donald Trump was polling between 35 and 40%.
He would average only about 41% approval over his tumultuous four-year tenure.
No one knows what lies ahead over the next four years. But for now, Trump already polls well more than 50% approval.
His inauguration in a few weeks will likely not resemble Trump’s 2016 ceremony.
In less than four months after assuming the presidency then, Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to investigate the hoax of Russian collusion.
That wasted 22-month, $40 million investigation found no collusion, but did derail the first two Trump years.
What followed the collusion ruse was a consistent effort to undermine the Trump presidency — two subsequent impeachments, the laptop “disinformation” hoax, the COVID-19 nationwide lockdown, and news suppression of any mention of the Chinese lab origin of the virus or questioning the closing of schools.
In the Trump administration’s last summer of 2020, 120 days of riot, arson, looting, assault, and murder followed, with the denouement of the Jan. 6 turmoil.
In contrast, the 2024-5 Trump transition has all but assumed the presidency. More than 100 foreign leaders have elbowed each other to be invited to Mar-a-Lago or to phone in their congratulations to the newly elected Trump.
Remember that in 2016 the left screamed “Logan Act” if a Trump transition appointee even talked with foreign officials.
So why is newly elected Trump a veritable cultural hero in 2024 in a fashion unimaginable eight years ago when the media had rendered him a near demon?
One, Trump is seen now as a welcome relief.
A departing and unpopular President Joe Biden leaves with about a 36% approval rating.
The prior Biden years are now seen as abnormal.
The left’s cultural revolution championed fringe policies never quite seen before: destroying the border, welcoming in 12 million illegal aliens, nihilist critical race and legal theories, institutionalizing a third sex, and mandating woke/DEI quotas and indoctrination sessions.
In reaction, Trump promises not just to restore his first-term success, but to expand it.
Two, Trump personally remains transparent and energetic — eager to talk and meet anyone, anytime, and just about anywhere.
His energy offers a sharp contrast with Biden.
Three, Trump is grudgingly admired, now even by some of his enemies who once sought but failed to destroy him.
He endured two impeachments, five civil and criminal court indictments, incessant lawfare, a 95% negative media coverage, attempts to remove him from states’ ballots, and two assassination attempts.
Four, Trump has expanded his MAGA base and permanently branded it as an ecumenical movement that welcomes shared class interests rather than the tired old tribal racial and ethnic chauvinism.
Trump also brought in disaffected Democrats, independents, and minorities in a way the Democrats could not with the evaporating “Never Trump” dead enders.
Fifth, the endorsements of the Biden-Harris legacy media, calcified Hollywood endorsers, blowhard university faculties, and tech barons proved vastly overrated.
It was trumped by more popular and dynamic Internet influencers, podcasters, bloggers, and maverick entrepreneurs.
Sixth and finally, Trump himself proved more experienced, and more measured and reflective than in 2016. His team too was more disciplined and street smart, led by savvy chief of staff Susan Wiles.
Add all of these once unimaginables up, and the people liked better the Trump reboot than grouchy Biden or inane and inauthentic Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as their shared extremist agendas.
Victor Davis Hanson is a historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.