Trump Just Staged the Biggest Political Comeback in American History | Opinion

Don't call it a comeback, I been here for years
I'm rockin' my peers, puttin' suckers in fear — L.L. Cool J, "Mama Said Knock You Out"

You are witnessing the greatest comeback in American political history.

The previous greatest comeback was by Richard Nixon, who lost his race for President in 1960, only to win decisively in 1968 and again in a 1972 landslide. After his resignation, he staged yet another extraordinary comeback, becoming the most influential former president America has ever had.

Until now.

President Donald Trump is mounting the most astonishing return to center stage we have ever seen. He is not just still standing. He is winning. It's a stunning turn of events.

From the moment he first announced his candidacy in June 2015, Trump led a powerful new America First movement based on the idea that the United States—and Americans—should be valued, supported, represented and yes, prioritized by their leaders. This should not have been a particularly controversial concept, but it was existentially threatening to the globalist ruling class.

So they set out to undermine and destroy him in the most corrupt and dangerous ways: launching the Russia Hoax to attack him as a Putin stooge—a lie gravely damaging to his presidency, the country, and our national security; hitting him with two phony impeachments; leveraging the pandemic to change election laws to weaken his 2020 chances; refusing the extra security he had requested for January 6; had his home raided by the FBI; and now burying him in an avalanche of bogus lawfare.

Trump's enemies have thrown the kitchen sink at him, hoping that something would neutralize him as a political player. Nothing has worked. In fact, the opposite has happened: like a mythical superhero, the more he's hit, the stronger he becomes, evidenced by his historic win in the Iowa GOP caucuses this week.

Trump won with 51 percent, the biggest margin of victory in the history of the caucus; he's also the first Republican to score over 50 percent of the vote. In fact, no Republican presidential candidate has enjoyed a winning margin greater than 12 percent. Governor Ron DeSantis, former Governor Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy trailed far behind with 21, 19 and 7 percent, respectively.

Trump's victory was so resounding that Ramaswamy ended his campaign, endorsed Trump, and is now campaigning with him. DeSantis and Haley are hanging on, but the writing is on the wall: Barring some unforeseen event, this primary is over.

Trump is now leading President Biden in most national general election polls as well. The Real Clear Politics polling average has him ahead of Biden 45.8 to 44.7, and in the swing states, Trump is leading Biden, in some cases by statistically significant amounts.

Among the many reasons Trump is winning, there are four big ones:

For starters, Trump's Record: Through pro-growth policies, he delivered a robust economy with historically low unemployment rates for all demographic groups, rising wages, little to no inflation, energy independence, a return of manufacturing jobs, and fairer trade deals. He enforced the border and essentially solved the illegal immigration problem with policies such as border wall construction, Remain in Mexico, and an end to Catch and Release. And he delivered greater global peace and stability by projecting strength, enforcing dire consequences to those who threatened U.S. interests, achieving historic peace deals, and rebuilding the military thereby re-establishing readiness and deterrence.

Prosperity and peace are fresh memories, and the American people want them back.

Of course, there is also Biden's Record. In contrast with Trump, Biden's presidency has been an historic catastrophe: a weak economy crippled by astronomical inflation, falling wages, sky-high energy prices, suffocating regulations, higher taxes, supply chain vulnerabilities, annual deficits touching $2 trillion and a national debt surpassing $34 trillion. Biden has flung open the borders to millions of illegal aliens, including hundreds of known suspected terrorists, tens of thousands of Chinese nationals and millions of other potentially hostile figures, drowning our cities and states and placing Americans in significant danger.

Biden's obvious weakness has led to two hot wars, in eastern Europe and the Middle East, and encouraged more aggression from our enemies. His refusal to support law enforcement has led to rising crime and a lower quality of life for most Americans.

And if those two aren't enough, there is the Democrats' endless lawfare against Trump. Attorney General Merrick Garland, his Deputy Lisa Monaco and their henchmen Special Counsel Jack Smith, New York Attorney General Leticia James, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Trump-hating judges have jumped the shark with their sham criminal and legal cases. The massive pile-on looks political to most Americans because it is political. His enemies have done the near-impossible: turned tough-guy Trump into a sympathetic figure.

Finally, Trump is more than a candidate; he's the leader of the most potent political movement in recent memory. In 2016, he promised the forgotten men and women that he would champion them; he then spent four years doing exactly that. They see him as one of them, an outsider who fought for them at great personal cost—and now it's their turn to fight for him. That emotional bond is unbreakable and it is insurmountable.

As the massive Trump victory in Iowa came into view Monday night, the mood among the ruling class was positively funereal. They cannot believe we're right back in 2016. The 10 months until election day is an eternity, and a lot can and will happen. But the fact that Trump is not only still in this race but leading is a testament to his extraordinary political gifts and the mighty movement he leads.

Monica Crowley is the host of the "Monica Crowley Podcast" and served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury from 2019 to 2021.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.