Another year has come and gone and with it another general election for the record books.
Technically, President-elect Donald Trump began the 2024 cycle by announcing his candidacy just after the 2022 midterm elections, but over the past 12 months, to quote Anchorman’s Ron Burgundy, things escalated quickly.
No matter your vote for president, let’s ring in 2025 by taking a look back at the 2024 campaign’s highest highs and lowest lows.
THE CONVICTION
Trump and President Joe Biden both faced a number of primary challengers this cycle, but despite the hype, no one came close to knocking off either king before Super Tuesday.
Still, the spring offered one major shakeup to the race: the May 30 conviction of Trump in New York.
The president-elect dealt with a number of legal issues this summer, but the New York hush money case saw Trump transform from just another former president to the first former president to be convicted of a crime. More than 30 felonies for those keeping score at home.
Trump’s conviction, however, might have buoyed Trump in the polls, with his hold over his base solidifying and significant subset of undecided voters viewing the cases against Trump as political prosecution from Biden and Democrats.
THE DEBATE
Biden’s time in the White House saw his physical and mental faculties steadily degrade, despite assurances from White House and campaign staff that the president remained as sharp as ever.
Then the debate happened.
Biden’s performance, arguably one of the worst in modern presidential debate history, blew his team’s top talking point (age being just a number) out of the water. Democratic power players began pulling every lever available in search of a way to force Biden out of the race.
And while many Democrats still publicly questioned Vice President Kamala Harris’s viability as a candidate, a general consensus formed that she couldn’t be worse than Biden, right?
THE ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
What should have been a routine rally in western Pennsylvania instead turned into a massive crime scene after a would-be assassin shot at the former president during his July visit to Butler.
The ability of a bloodied Trump to stand right back up after a bullet grazed his ear and yell “fight, fight, fight” created the most iconic political moment of the year, not to mention spark the RNC’s hottest earwear fashion trend.
The attempt on Trump’s life revealed systemic problems within the Secret Service, and just over two months later, the president-elect’s protective detail was able to foil a second assassination attempt, this one taking place near Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club.
THE WITHDRAWAL
Nearly a month after his debate stage disaster, Biden finally caved to the not-so-shadowy campaign waged by Democratic leaders to force him from the race.
The president made his announcement in the early afternoon of July 21, and though he endorsed Harris, there were questions about whether the party leaders would reopen the primary process or potentially head into the August convention hoping to broker their way to a new nominee.
They say that when the end comes, it comes quickly. And for Biden, despite technically still being the sitting president, his electoral withdrawal effectively made him the ultimate lame duck for the final months of his term in office.
THE BEAR
Robert Kennedy Jr. wore many hats this cycle.
First, he was a Democrat, running against Biden in the primary.
Then, as an Independent, he raised serious concerns within Trump land about how much support he might pull away from Donald in battleground states.
And though Kennedy eventually endorsed Trump after ending his campaign, earning a Cabinet secretary nomination in the process, perhaps his greatest magic trick of the year was announcing to the world, without any apparent provocation, that it was in fact he who had deposited that dead bear cub in Central Park 10 years prior.
In this day and age, it’s rare for candidates to be driven from a race by scandal.
It’s even rarer for said candidates to basically call the cops on themselves.
THE QUEEN-LESS CROWNING
Harris’s ascension as Biden’s heir culminated in her acceptance of the Democratic nomination at the party’s August convention in Chicago.
The parties were great. The outside activists protesting the Biden-Harris administration’s Middle East oversight were minimal. And Harris’s acceptance speech earned bonafide roars from attendees by the time the vice president concluded.
Still, the biggest story of the week involved a no-show from international icon and child of destiny, Beyonce.
Rumor has it that Democrats leaked Beyonce’s potential attendance in an effort to draw a bigger crowd for Harris’s speech, and though Knowles-Carter eventually endorsed Harris during a rally in the former’s hometown of Houston, DNC attendants departed the Windy City in August a little disappointed.
THE RETURN TO BUTLER
Three months after the attempt on his life, Trump returned to Butler, Pennsylvania, and opened a rebooted rally with “As I was saying.”
Despite the president-elect’s theatrics, another billionaire stole the show that night.
Elon Musk, arguably the most influential noncandidate to ever put his thumb on the scale in an election year, joined Trump up on stage, publicly declaring his loyalty to the Don.
The financial and organizing aid Musk and his super PAC gave Trump over the final months of the campaign were critical to the president-elect’s November victory, and Musk has been rewarded for his efforts. He and Vivek Ramaswamy, another one-time Trump primary challenger, are slated to head the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the federal bureaucracy, or at least just eliminate the SEC.
THE DANCE PARTY
If you look at the election results, you’d likely forget that things got a little dicey from Trump in the fall.
Harris’s strong polling following the August convention, coupled with a seismic fundraising haul, put the president-elect on the back foot.
In response, Trump kicked up his campaign appearances, and it’s fair to say the production value faltered as a result.
At one such event, taking place on Oct. 19 in Pennsylvania, a medical emergency in the crowd paused Trump’s town hall.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Instead of restarting the questions, Trump, flanked by Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD), opted instead to shout music requests at his campaign DJ and dance onstage for another half-to-full hour.
What a time to be alive.
