Trump’s comeback victory, after reshaping his party and national politics, looks a lot like Andrew Jackson’s in 1828

Donald Trump speaks to supporters early on the morning of Nov. 6, 2024. AP Photo/Evan Vucci by Spencer Goidel, Auburn University As the nation prepares for a second Donald Trump presidency, some history-minded people may seek understanding in the idea that it wasn’t until Richard Nixon’s second presidential term that the serious consequences arrived. But as a scholar of American politics, I don’t think that’s the right parallel. Trump has already faced most of the situations that brought down Nixon – a congressional investigation and federal prosecutors’ inquiries. Trump has survived by – consciously or not – following the example of another American president who created a political party in his own image and used it to rule almost unchecked: Andrew Jackson, whose portrait Trump hung in the Oval Office during his first term. Unlike Nixon, Trump outlasted investigations Richard Nixon was reelected by an Electoral College landslide in 1972 in the midst of the Watergate scandal, in which people affiliated with Nixon’s reelection campaign broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee and then sought to cover up their actions. Although Nixon started off his second term with sky-high approval, his demise soon followed. A Senate special committee...