OPINION:
Former President Donald Trump’s blaring motorcade snaked its way up to Capitol Hill on Thursday, marking his first visit to the Capitol since he was drummed from power nearly four years ago.
Since that day, they have beaten him, maligned him, raided his home, detained him, indicted him, mug-shotted him and even convicted him in court. Nearly everyone counted him out. He was political roadkill. But they failed to destroy Donald Trump.
Undaunted, tireless and sunny as ever, Mr. Trump triumphantly strode into a room of Republican lawmakers in the belly of the swamp on Thursday to complete the greatest political comeback in history. (Mr. Trump is quick to point out, “It’s only a ‘comeback’ if I win in November.”)
He was greeted by thunderous applause.
Democrats may cry, the press may wrench their garments, and even some noodle-spined Republicans may have the vapors, but Donald Trump’s agenda owns the Republican Party today. And the Republican Party is ascendant — remade in Mr. Trump’s image — like never before.
“He was great,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, one of Mr. Trump’s staunchest loyalists, after the meeting. “He was funny. He was honest. He was direct.”
Displaying his ability to unify Republicans in the House, Mr. Trump razzed Ms. Greene by asking her if she was “being nice” to House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, since her effort to dump him from the speaker’s chair.
As for Mr. Trump himself, who first descended the glass escalator nine years ago this Sunday, he is stronger today than he has ever been. Even stronger than the day after he shocked the political world by winning the 2016 election.
As triumphant as that day was for Mr. Trump, lurking beneath the surface was a gathering storm of powerful enemies — even at the highest level of the government he had just been elected to lead — who would stop at nothing to destroy him.
When a wise newspaper columnist spoke to Mr. Trump the day after that unlikeliest victory in November 2016, he said to Mr. Trump: “Congratulations, Mr. President. They will never let you do that again.”
Today, Mr. Trump is no less despised by the evil operators in Washington who are willing to shred the Constitution to destroy him. But they have been exposed. Their tactics have been revealed. They have been beaten and reduced.
Most importantly, they have spent every weapon imaginable against Mr. Trump. And he still stands tall — red tie, white shirt, blue suit — charging forward with a clarion agenda supported by huge majorities of the American public.
Mr. Trump’s implacable enemies — particularly in the press — will never give up. But even some of them see the coming revolution. And they are terrified.
“The real problem is not the party itself,” declared MSNBC contributor Donny Deutsch as Mr. Trump headed to Capitol Hill. “It’s the voters who are subscribing to the party — 74 million of them last time around.”
“The real question and the thing that’s the most troubling — and I know a lot of these Trump voters — is the party speaks for itself. They’re transparent. We see it,” he grieved.
“Half the country says: ‘That’s my party. I’ll vote for that. That works for me,’” Mr. Deutsch said. “That’s the troubling part. It’s beyond the party. It’s the voters that are subscribing to it. That keeps me up at night.”
Kudos to the guy for expressing out loud his true contempt for voters and his profound hatred of our system of electoral politics aimed at government of, for and by the people.
Such enemies of our democratic republic will be cast aside and soon forgotten. America’s future will be defined by Mr. Trump’s hopeful vision.
“We have great unity and we have great common sense,” Mr. Trump said after huddling with a group of Republican senators.
“We are a nation in decline. We have a leader that’s being laughed at all over the world,” Mr. Trump said. “We are going to turn it around and we’re going to turn it around fast.”
Only then will Mr. Trump declare this the greatest political comeback in history.
• Charles Hurt is the opinion editor at The Washington Times.
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