Trump Win Would Be ‘Greatest Comeback in American History’: Bush Official

A victory for former President Donald Trump in Tuesday’s presidential election would be “the greatest comeback in American political history,” a former White House official has said.
The unexpected twists of the 2024 election—including assassination attempts against the Republican candidate and the incumbent president withdrawing from the race three months before the vote—have cemented it as one of the most unusual in U.S. history.
Perhaps one of the most striking aspects of this unique election is the persistence of Trump’s campaign, despite the former president facing numerous legal obstacles while campaigning for the White House.
“What other man could survive two impeachments, a congressional committee investigation stacked against him, two special prosecutors, dozens of state and federal felony indictments and opposition from a significant chunk of his own party, including his former vice president and a chief of staff?” William McGurn, who served as the White House director of speechwriting for President George W. Bush between 2006 and 2008, wrote in a Monday op-ed for The Wall Street Journal.
McGurn added that Trump’s unlikely endurance was a testament to the failures of the Democratic Party to cast him as “beyond the pale.”
He said that efforts to label Trump a fascist and his supporters “a bunch of Nazis,” as well as to push “a narrative of nonexistent Russian collusion,” had fallen flat with the American people at large, as proved by Trump’s “inconvenient popularity” with those traditionally regarded as Democratic loyalists: Black men and Latino voters.
Recent polling released by The Economist and YouGov found that Trump had gained ground with Latino voters in the final stretch of the election and was now trailing his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, by a smaller margin—40 percent to her 52 percent.
A perceived lack of support for Harris among Black men prompted former President Barack Obama to suggest in early October that sexism was behind their apprehension to cast a ballot for the vice president.
McGurn said Trump’s supporters have “mostly reacted with humor” to the Democratic Party’s “condescension,” citing the Republicans who dressed up as trash bags in an ironic response to President Joe Biden’s recent “garbage” comment.
McGurn said the “unpopular record” of the Biden-Harris administration had also contributed to the perception of Trump as “a more plausible candidate.”
Newsweek has contacted the Harris campaign for a comment on McGurn’s op-ed.
Polling conducted for Newsweek in early October found that 51 percent of voters thought the U.S. economy was heading in the wrong direction, compared to 30 percent who were optimistic about its trajectory.
Biden also has an approval rating of 38.5 percent, according to 538, among the lowest of his tenure.
Larry Sabato, the founder and director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, previously told Newsweek it would be hard for any candidate in Harris’ position to win the White House “when the incumbent party’s president has job approval ratings in the 30s and low 40s.” He added, “Biden was a solid president but a truly terrible salesman.”
McGurn wrote: “Whatever Mr. Trump’s offenses, his voters have concluded that Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris are worse, if only because they can count on the media and many of the nation’s most important institutions to back them up.”
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