President-elect Donald Trump “already conquered” Washington, DC, before Inauguration Day, the Washington Post‘s Marianne LeVine, Clara Ence Morse, and Aaron Schaffer admitted Saturday.
The report details a “stark contrast to his divisive entry in 2017 and departure in 2021” compared to Trump’s reelection, but it failed to mention the amount of obstacles he overcame to achieve the greatest political comeback in American history.
Trump ultimately defeated political opponents who tried to imprison him, bankrupt him, remove him from the ballot, and make him politically irrelevant by introducing a partisan committee to investigate January 6 — and whose inflammatory rhetoric created a ripe environment for two assassination attempts.
The omission amplifies the Post’s framing of Trump’s return to Washington:
President-elect Donald Trump is returning to Washington triumphant: His legal cases are behind him, corporate executives are flocking to Mar-a-Lago to meet with him, his inaugural committee has raised record sums of money for Monday’s ceremony and the Republican Party is now fully in his control.
It’s a stark contrast both to his 2017 inauguration — when Trump came to Washington as a political unknown without close personal relationships to his Cabinet or congressional leaders — and to his departure from the Oval Office in January 2021, when he was widely condemned for the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.
Now, many of his Cabinet picks appear poised to sail through the Republican-controlled Senate, including his controversial pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, whose nomination seemed in danger just a month ago. Trump is expected to sign scores of executive orders as he takes office, especially on the border, a central issue of his presidential campaign. He is personally closer to his proposed Cabinet and other top aides compared with eight years ago and is enjoying some of the highest favorability ratings of his political career. Days before coming into office, Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire and hostage release deal that both Trump and President Joe Biden have sought to take credit for.
The report did mention how Trump’s polling numbers are high, perhaps as high as they ever have been. A CNN poll found Trump’s approval rating was 48 percent, up from 39 percent just last year.
Trump’s imminent return to Washington has caused President Joe Biden to feel “totally dejected,” NBC News reported based on people who recently met with officials. The mood at the White House reflects the state of the Democrat party.
CNN twisting the knife into Biden’s back days before he leaves office. CNN would have never commissioned this poll before November…
— @amuse (@amuse) January 18, 2025
h/t @WendellHusebo pic.twitter.com/4ZxuXXzDnJ
The shattered party does not appear to know why Trump won or how to prevent further Democrat defeats. It is in the middle of revamping its nine-year-old talking points that claimed without evidence that Trump and Republicans were racist, bigots, and misogynists.
In recent weeks, the bewildered party does not seem equipped to mount a strong resistance to Trump’s cabinet nominees, most of whom appear to be on a glide path to confirmation, although Senate Democrats might try delay tactics, moves that are expected but can be overcome with strong Senate Republican leadership.
“It’s hard to reflect, it’s hard for it to sink in that we’re done here — until we’re actually done and out the gates with our stuff,” one White House official told NBC News. “That’s their mood… it hasn’t sunk in for people who are still here yet because we’re working until the last minute.”
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
