Trump Remains One Of The Biggest Political Stories In Decades

There seems to be little middle ground when it comes to Donald Trump.

In some ways that was true even before he was president. Now that he has done the seemingly impossible and resides in the White House that is especially the case.

Trump is clearly someone who did not need to be president. He was already known to millions of people in this country. He has long been a successful businessman with staggering wealth and was even a television star of sorts hosting a reality show.

It had been rumored and speculated for years that Trump might run for president. However, most political experts seemed to think that would have taken place in the 1980s. He still had a youthful appearance then and while all billionaire businessmen are controversial to some degree, it was nothing compared to the Trump of 2018.

Trump finally made the decision to legitimately run for president for the 2018 campaign. The news shocked many political pundits who gave him little chance to win a primary, much less the Republican nomination.

The 2016 GOP field was as crowded as any in modern history. There were so many candidates, in fact, that they could not all fit on the debate stage. The debates and forums were split in half with five or six going first before the remaining candidates who had higher poll numbers.

Almost from the start other candidates attacked Trump for not making a pledge to support whoever was the ultimate nominee. In reality that is a silly thing to attack anyone for. Trump deserved credit for simply not falling in line with the GOP. If he liked the eventual nominee (assuming it was not him) then he would support him (or her.) If he didn’t then there would be no endorsement.

Once it became clear that Trump was serious with his presidential bid the attacks intensified. Ironically, they weren’t just from the Democrats who probably never thought he would be the GOP nominee.

Fox News, the right-leaning network, had several personalities who slammed Trump at every turn. Still even his critics did not think he would come close to winning.

After a disappointing showing in the Iowa caucus, Trump’s campaign hung in the balance as everything moved to the cold, barren lands of New Hampshire. That win would help send Trump to the nomination.

In reality, GOP insiders wanted anyone but Trump as their nominee. They simply did not believe he could defeat Hillary Clinton in the general election. Truthfully, few political experts thought Trump had a chance either.

However, Trump proved to the ultimate feline-like candidate with nine lives. No controversy (real or otherwise) mattered to his supporters. Time and time again reports indicated that Trump had a solid 35 percent of primary voters. That is a large number, especially when the primary field was as large as it was.

Once other candidates (how many can actually remember them all without googling it) began to end their campaigns, it became almost impossible to defeat Trump.

As the campaign moved into the general election stage, Trump’s momentum slowed a little. Even a week before the vote it didn’t appear he was going to win. That was true even on election day when many began conceding that Trump could not win.

There are even reports that on election night some Republican voters could not watch the returns for fear of what was going to happen. No doubt even they underestimated Trump.

Trump had turned out to be like most presidents of any party. There are people who believe who does nothing right and some who think he does no wrong. The truth, as is often the case, lies in between.

One thing that cannot be denied is the path to the White House for Donald Trump remains one of the most fascinating political stories of the last century (or longer.) When he rode down the escalator at Trump Tower few thought he would eventually be president.

Some said he would drop out of the race before voting began. Others said after his first loss he would throw in the towel. Those predictions were clearly wrong as Trump is now reaching halfway through his first term in office.

His election as president will probably open the door for other celebrities to run and even have a legit chance at winning. If nothing else Trump has caused a lot more people to pay attention to presidential politics and that can only be viewed as a positive, regardless of what you think of him personally.

When you consider he really had nothing to prove or gain by running for the highest elected office in the land, it remains quite the story.