NEVER mind Frank Sinatra or Richard Nixon, Donald Trump will now for ever be known as the king of the comeback.
Four years after being sent packing from Washington amid a dangerously petulant denigration of democracy and fair play, he’s back in the White House – or soon will be – as the 47th President of the United States.
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By the time most people on this side of the Atlantic had awoken, triumphant Trump was declaring himself victor, even if he wasn’t quite over the line numerically.
Not many will have predicted the manner and margin of victory we witnessed across the early hours of yesterday as it became more and more clear that Kamala Harris was not seen as the candidate who could prevent a second Trump term.
A struggling economy seen to have been impaired by a visibly waning Joe Biden looks to have been one of the factors that helped make up voters’ minds that they’d be better off under a Trump presidency again.
The tide had turned back in his favour at exactly the right time and it is carrying him all the way from his Mar-a-Lago bolthole back to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to run the country.
It is extraordinary to remind oneself that Mr Trump is still facing charges for allegedly inciting the violent attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. He will make history as the first sitting president to have been convicted of a felony, after being found guilty of falsifying business records.
And now he’s the leader of the free world once more.
That prospect presents more questions than it offers answers and the imbued sense of uncertainty will be unsettling for many.
Nixon went from loser in 1960 and 1962 and the life of the wandering outcast to a winner and being sworn in as President No37 in January 1969.
Of course, that presidency was cut short by scandal as Watergate did for him and forced him into resignation and the shadows once more.
There will be some who won’t struggle to foresee a similarly ignominious and scandal-laden end to the Trump story, whenever that might be.
But his supporters will be confident that a full second term in office will, in fact, strengthen the New Yorker’s reputation and confirm his legacy. Can he really make America great again? Is there a plan to match the rhetoric?
Time will tell and history will be the judge – just as it has been for every one of the previous 46 presidents of the United States.
We can only hope that the legitimately-held fears of many that a bombastic President Trump divides rather than unites are off the mark this time around.
