Donald Trump 2024 TIME Person of the Year
Mar-a-Lago seemed quiet the three days before Thanksgiving. Donald Trump’s Moorish Palace seemed to be empty.
The seaside estate was deserted by late morning. A junior staffer, or silent aide, walked intermittently through the vast living room. There were many totems of Trump. By the front door, framed magazines with his face on the cover were hung. A cast-bronze Eagle, which was a gift from the singer Lee Greenwood, sat on a table next to the fireplace. A picture of Trump with Arnold Palmer was hung in the lavatory for men near the urinals. A painting entitled The Visionary, depicting Trump in a tennis shirt, young and trim, decorated a wall of the library bar. The rooms were empty and looked more like a museum than a club for millionaires.
The imminent arrival of the President-elect had sparked signs of life by midday. Speakers placed discreetly played Trump’s personal 2,000 song playlist. Some transition officials and soon-to be Administration officials arrived and perched on overstuffed couches and huddled in corners. Mike Waltz, Trump’s National Security Advisor, conferred with the incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles. Vice President elect J.D. Vance entered with a staff retinue. A staffer positioned himself near the window of the patio and set down Trump’s cell phone. The screen lit up with occasional calls and text messages from media personalities or Cabinet nominees. The small group of senior staffers were already on their feet, anticipating Trump’s arrival.
The world’s richest man walked in with a relaxed air. Trump, dressed in his navy suit and tie with a red bowtie, looked a bit older than when he met TIME seven months ago. He was more subdued and less verbose. His discursive speech patterns were the same, but the volume had been turned down. He is asked to explain his bruises on his right arm while he sits under bright lights during a photo shoot of 30 minutes before a 65 minute interview. He says that the bruises on his right hand are from shaking hands with a lot of people.
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Trump’s political rebirth
It is unprecedented in American history. His first term ended with disgrace. He tried to reverse the results of the 2020 elections, culminating in an attack on the U.S. Capitol. When he announced his bid for the presidency in late 2022, amid multiple criminal investigations, he was shunned and ostracized by many party officials. Trump won the Republican primary in less than a calendar year, making it one of the most closely contested primaries ever. He spent six-weeks in New York City’s courtroom during the general elections, as the first former president to be convicted. This fact did not dampen his popularity. In July, an assassin shot him in the head, but missed by a fraction of an inch. In the following four months, he defeated not just one, but two Democratic rivals, won all seven swing-states, and became first Republican in 20 years to win the popular vote. He has realigned American political, remaking GOP and leaving Democrats to reckon with what went wrong.
Trump is ready to explain his unlikely resurrection. Even the final act has a name. He says, “I named it 72 Days of Fury,” as the interview begins. “We touched the nerve of the nation.” Not only the MAGA supporters were angry. Trump tapped into deep-seated national discontent over the economy, immigration and cultural issues. His grievances resonated among suburban moms and retired men, Latinos and Blacks, young voters, and tech edgelords. Democrats believed that the majority of Americans wanted a president who would uphold liberal democratic norms, but Trump saw an America ready to smash those norms, tapping into the growing feeling that the system is rigged.
It is time to see what Trump can do for America. He ran with a vision of a strongman, promising to deport millions of migrants, dismantle portions of the federal governments, seek revenge on his political opponents, and dismantle the institutions that many people view as corrupt and censorious. Kellyanne Conway was his campaign manager in 2016, and she remains a close advisor. “He understands cultural zeitgeists.” “Donald Trump has simple, yet complex ideas. Too many politicians are exactly the opposite.”
Trump promises to take on the foreign sources that he believes are responsible for America’s problems: transnational criminals and traditional allies who he views as free-riders of America’s global generosity. He thinks he can fight back with punitive tariffs and bare-knuckled negotiations.
U.S. economic, military and humanitarian support. He promises to change the country’s role as a counterweight to authoritarianism in post-war times.
Many obstacles still stand in his path. Republicans hold a narrow majority in both the House and Senate. His boundary-pushing policy may not be endorsed by a conservative Supreme Court. A federal bureaucracy that is resisted by institutional forces could frustrate his plans. Public opinion can also be a powerful tool to check any president. Trump has proven twice that he is able to ride the wave of anti-incumbent sentiments, cults of personality and divisive speech, including racist and homophobic attacks, in order to gain power. He still has to show that he is capable of implementing the radical vision on which he ran his campaign. The people closest to the president-elect believe that he’ll surprise everyone by keeping his promises. Wiles says that most politicians do not keep their promises, but he will.
It is unclear whether Trump will be able to fix the root cause of Americans’ anger. He’ll have to deal with the same forces that brought him to the White House — globalization, mass migration and the rise of China — which have plagued both his predecessors in the past. He will also find out how far the country is willing to go. He could change the face of America if he is successful. He risks, along the way to destroying the constitutional norms that have sustained America’s great democracy experiment for the past two and a half centuries.
Trump was flying in his private cabin to a Grand Rapids campaign rally on April 2, when he picked a document Wiles placed atop of a pile of papers. The headline was clear: “How an abortion ban at the national level will cost Trump his election”. Trump raised both eyebrows. He said, “Kinda a nasty title huh?”
This episode marked a turning-point for a central issue in the race. Was Trump able to find a position regarding abortion that would limit the electoral losses he suffered with women, after having played a key role in the demise of Roe v. Wade? This was also part of Trump’s bigger challenge: How to bring change to all who want it, even voters turned off by Trump’s positions or behaviors. “There aren’t enough MA
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