How Donald Trump’s political career rose from the dead

Four years ago, Trump seemed like a beaten man. His Democratic opponent, Biden, had defeated him by a comfortable electoral margin in the 2020 presidential election.

Courts had rejected his attempts to challenge those results. His last-ditch rally, in which he urged his supporters to march on the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers certified the results, culminated in the crowd launching a violent attack, sending those inside scrambling for safety. Hundreds of law enforcement officers were injured.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao were among a wave of Trump administration officials who resigned in protest. “There is no doubt about the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the turning point for me,” DeVos wrote in her resignation letter to the president.

Even Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of Trump’s closest allies, broke with the president.

“The only thing I can say is that I am not allowed to participate anymore,” he said in the Senate. “Enough is enough.”

The movement away from Trump extended to the business world, as dozens of major companies — including American Express, Microsoft, Nike and Walgreens — announced they were suspending support for Republicans who had challenged the outcome of the 2020 election.

On the day of Biden’s inauguration, Trump broke with 152 years of tradition by refusing to attend the ceremony. Instead, he flew back to his private club at Mar-a-Lago earlier that morning, accompanied by a handful of his closest aides and family.

According to Meridith McGraw, author of Trump in Exile, an account of the former president’s time after leaving the White House, his mood was somber.

“He was angry, frustrated, unsure how to spend his days and without a plan for his political future,” she said.

The media coverage and political chatter that month reflected this uncertainty about his future. After a clear electoral defeat, followed by the chaotic scenes at the Capitol, some were even more definitive, signaling that there was no way back for Trump.

“And just like that, Donald J. Trump’s daring, incendiary and sometimes brilliant political career comes to an end,” said an op-ed in The Hill.

The subtitle of a January 2021 op-ed in The New York Times read: “The terrible experiment is over.” The headline was even more direct: “President Donald J. Trump: The End.”