2024 belonged to Donald Trump. He survived multiple assassination attempts and MAGA turned him into a religious-political icon supposedly chosen by God to take back the White House. The Supreme Court declared him a de facto king who is above the law. The professional smart people and other such establishment political observers repeatedly declared that Trump’s presidential campaign was “doomed,” and that President Biden (and then Vice President Harris) would defeat him — perhaps with relative ease. Many of these same public voices also repeatedly declared that “the walls were closing in” on Trump because of his multiple criminal trials. Of course, that did not happen. On Election Day, he won both the popular vote and the Electoral College. The MAGA Republicans also took control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. He smashed the fabled “blue wall” and increased his support among the Democratic Party’s base voters, most notably Hispanics. The Democratic Party’s leaders and consultant class are still shell-shocked by how Trump and the MAGA movement so easily ran over them.
On Monday, four years since Trump’s followers attacked the Capitol in an attempt to nullify the results of the presidential election, Trump was officially certified as the winner of the 2024 election. Kamala Harris fulfilled her ceremonial role as vice president and presided over the ceremony. The Democrats did not object or otherwise disrupt the certification of the Electoral College votes. Harris was gracious in defeat; she must have also felt humiliated. The Republicans, as is their way, behaved badly. Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., told Axios that “Seeing the attitudes of Republicans sitting across the aisle from me, smirking — this was a serious ceremony. They were acting like juveniles.”
