Against all odds

History teachers — teachers of historical thinking and how historians think — often invite learners to analyze the causes and consequences of certain individuals, movements and moments: what happened and why and, sometimes, what didn’t happen and why. These are rich questions that help us understand the human experience.

ABC News chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl models this type of inquiry in his latest book Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign that Changed America. The author of political tomes including Tired of Winning, Betrayal, and Front Row at the Trump Show makes an attempt to explain how Donald Trump won the 2024 U.S. election. Despite the odds and himself, Trump — a convicted felon who was caught on tape bragging about grabbing female genitals and who is linked to sexual terror Jeffrey Epstein — seemed to not only persevere, but thrive.

As Karl eerily points out following the election night, “despite it all, Trump had won — and won big. By any objective measure, his victory was stunning.” How could the man behind the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection not only win the election, but decisively secure the popular vote? And what might the impact of a more politically savvy president be who now holds a greater mandate?

Retribution is an examination of conditions that rocketed Trump back to the presidency, where we have already witnessed egregious human rights abuses, dangerous foreign policy, the destabilization of the world economy and threats of Canadian annexation. Troops in the streets have become normalized and ICE operatives with masks are commonplace.

Karl, who is certainly right of centre and has a bizarre appreciation (or perhaps sympathetic leaning) for Trump, outlines the causes and consequences that have placed the United States on the precipice of empirical demise.

Beginning with the climate of the American electorate, Karl describes how most mainstream pundits underestimated the alienation and isolation that so many Americans experience. Even a guilty verdict on 34 charges related to hush money and a porn star were not enough to deter his followers; in fact, the felony charges and subsequent guilty verdict bolstered Trump’s chances. As Karl argues, “The more he was attacked — by powerful figures in law, politics, and the media — the stronger his connection with the people who felt let down by those powerful figures grew.” Trump was able to double down on his own lies about witch hunts, corrupt judges and a biased media.

An electorate groomed by a defunded education system, oligarchs and a general societal malaise was eager to follow Trump to the ends of the earth while Joe Biden and the Democrats dithered. In fact, it was Biden’s stubbornness to stay in the race that Karl outlines as a major contributor to a Trump victory. Not only had the Democrats and the left let Trump and his goons into the gate, so to speak, but following a disastrous debate and public appearances, Democrats were scrambling to muster the courage to call Biden out.

As Karl explains, by the late summer of 2024, “Just about everyone in politics seemed to realize that his calendar had reached the end of the road, but had Biden himself reached the same conclusion?”

The July 2024 assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania, the appointment of JD Vance as candidate for vice-president and an overly cautious Kamala Harris presidential campaign sealed the deal for Democrats. Even introducing the likes of conspiracy theorist Robert Kennedy Jr. and billionaire Elon Musk, and even the ridiculous debate where Trump asserted Haitians in Ohio were eating pets, could not deny Trump the presidency. Democrats misread, and perhaps continue to misread, the electorate and the plight of Americans who fall fully vulnerable to Russian bots, to bread and circuses and to fabricated news cycles.

The Trump election landslide on Nov. 6, 2024 has ushered in a new and more maniacal call to action for the president and his band of oligarchs. “The president-elect was ready to test the limits of his power — and whether there were any limits at all,” Karl posits.

Beyond poor polling, what we have seen is very little resistance to his policies and his tyrannical attacks on those most vulnerable while padding the wallets of the billionaire class — all out in the open, for everyone to see.

This is what is most perplexing and alarming to Karl. While reflecting on the infamous February 2025 meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, where the beleaguered yet heroic president was mocked by Trump and Vance, Karl offers stark analysis: “Trump’s final words before the cameras left the Oval Office made clear that, although he was angry, Trump was also enjoying himself.”

Retribution is an important insight into what happens when a society defunds public education, the billionaire class steals all three levels of government and the vulnerable are scapegoated and ridiculed. It is a cautionary tale for all those who wish to create a just and democratic society — just societies that require work, sacrifice and a focus on community.

Matt Henderson is superintendent of the Winnipeg School Division.