Trump’s 2024 Comeback Attempt Versus Prior Presidents

Jackson’s, Cleveland’s & Nixon’s Comebacks

Barely a week after this year’s midterm elections, in which the much anticipated Republican Red Wave never materialized, former President Trump announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election.

The only president who succeeded in occupying the White House in two non-consecutive terms was Grover Cleveland. Yet, the story of his comeback is much different than Trump’s. In fact, our immediate former president can learn a great deal from Cleveland… in how to lose an election and in how to orchestrate his comeback.

In addition to Cleveland, Andrew Jackson and Richard Nixon lost their presidential bids. But they stayed in the fight, rallied their support and had their comebacks to win the White House. By the way, when he lost to Kennedy, Nixon gave a brief but beautiful speech before both houses of Congress. Click this link to listen to it: Nixon announces JFK win to Congress 1961.

To dig deep into this history, I spoke with Professor Michael Gerhardt of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he is a Burton Craig Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence at the school of law there. If Professor Gerhardt’s voice sounds familiar to you… it’s because you’ve seen him on TV… many times.