For ads-free news, click here.
One day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, John Harris, the founding editor and global editor-in-chief of Politico, published an opinion-editorial titled, “Time to Admit It: Trump Is a Great President. He’s Still Trying To Be a Good One.”
Harris began by commenting on Trump’s inaugural address, and then wrote, “But the second occasion of Trump taking the oath of office also put him in an entirely new light. For the first time, he is holding power under circumstances in which reasonable people cannot deny a basic fact: He is the greatest American figure of his era.”
Harris writes:
Let’s quickly exhale: Great in this context is not about a subjective debate over whether he is a singularly righteous leader or a singularly menacing one. It is now simply an objective description about the dimensions of his record. He began a decade ago by dominating the Republican Party. He soon advanced to dominating every discussion of American politics broadly. Now, his astonishing comeback after his defeat by Joseph Biden in 2020 and the notoriety of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot makes clear there are certain things he is not and one big thing he is.
He is not a fluke, who got elected initially in 2016 almost entirely because of the infirmities of his opponent. He is not someone the American public somehow misunderstands — as though Democrats and the news media have not spent 10 years forcefully highlighting the risks of his record and character.
He is someone with an ability to perceive opportunities that most politicians do not and forge powerful, sustained connections with large swaths of people in ways that no contemporary can match. In other words: He is a force of history.
Harris then noted that if Democrats ever want to fight against the Trump phenomenon, they must change their entire strategy, because the American people haven’t been buying what they tried to sell.
For Democrats — and most excruciatingly Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris — the inaugural ceremony and all it symbolizes were a meal made of ingredients scraped off the kennel floor. Once they gargle and spit, however, the opposition party may find something liberating about the moment.
That is because they can no longer place confidence in a strategy that once looked plausible but now has been exposed as illusion. They cannot push Trump to the margins, by treating him as a momentary anomaly or simply denouncing him as lawless and illegitimate.
Some voters bought that but not enough to win an election. Opponents have no choice but to acknowledge he and his movement represent a large historical argument — and then rally similarly large arguments to defeat it.
Harris notes that Trump’s arguments “have shifted the terms of debate in ways that echo within both parties — in this case, on issues such as trade, China, and the role of big corporations.”
Harris also acknowledged all Trump has endured over the past several years, and yet, instead of allowing the attacks to get him down, he has risen to become stronger than ever:
One more signature shown by the most consequential presidents: Uncommon psychological toughness. Have you ever known someone who was facing legal hurdles? In many cases, even if people ultimately win the case, they end up being consumed and shrunken by the searing nature of the experience. Imagine running for president amid huge civil suits, criminal prosecutions, and even felony convictions — then emerging from this morass as a larger figure than before. No one needs to admire the achievement to recognize that Trump is possessed by some rare traits of denial, combativeness and resilience.
About that combativeness: Could someone so zealously divisive ever join the roster of presidents who even schoolchildren can typically recite as the nation’s greatest?
Column: Trump is “a force of history,” writes our founding editor @harrispolitico.
And once his political opponents “gargle and spit… they may find something liberating about the moment,” John Harris says 👇https://t.co/HJHbrdG2LM
— POLITICO (@politico) January 21, 2025
Follow us on X (Formerly Twitter.)
The DML News App: www.X.com/DMLNewsApp
The Dennis Michael Lynch Podcast archive is available below, with the most recent on top. Never miss an episode. Subscribe to the show by downloading The DML News App or go to Apple Podcasts.
