Four years ago, the political establishment exiled Donald Trump from Washington in revulsion and fear over his supporters’ attack on the Capitol to stop the confirmation of Joe Biden’s election victory. At the time the top Republican in the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, said the mob was “un-American” and Senate leader Mitch McConnell said if “this isn’t impeachable, I don’t know what is”. The Democrats soon began the impeachment process and Trump’s time in office was judged to be an unfortunate aberration.
But by 28 January, McCarthy was on a plane down to Mar-a-Lago to make amends with the former president. Trump’s recapture of the Republican Party began apace. He recast the riot as a story about the deep state persecuting his supporters in the same way they were persecuting him. He squashed Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ run for the party’s presidential nomination as the “Trumpism without Trump” candidate. The various legal cases brought against him only fuelled his argument that he was the victim. His ability to turn what seemed to be a fatal blow into a political opportunity had been underestimated.
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