Certainly, the most controversial president in my long lifetime is Donald J. Trump. Mr. Trump is much more controversial and maligned than even Ronald Reagan, who was another target of Democrats’ unreasonable pushback and skewed, hyperbolic news in the 1980s.
For instance, during Reagan’s tenure, his proposed Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), dubbed “Star Wars,” was hugely ridiculed by the media and even some senators like Joe Biden. Although the US never developed or deployed it, Israel fortuitously took up the mantle, implementing critical SDI elements. Now, Trump’s Golden Dome proposal is taking shape, and the relentlessly targeted president is bringing the SDI shield concept to the nation’s defense.
However, even if built and hugely successful, diehards in politics and the media are not likely to give meaningful credit to President Trump.
Disdain of Trump stems largely from manufactured accusations and profound misunderstandings of how a perceptive, perseverant, successful businessman from Queens, New York, operates.
One author who apparently understands the Queens business mentality is Fox News contributor and New Jersey native, Joe Concha. In The Greatest Comeback Ever: Inside Trump’s Big Beautiful Campaign, author Joe Concha meticulously chronicles the critical few months leading up to and shortly after Trump’s huge election victory in November 2024.
The Greatest Comeback Ever documents the most memorable events, such as the first and second assassination attempts, the McDonald’s fry cooking and trash hauler gigs, the lengthy Joe Rogan interview, and Trump’s best zingers from the traditional Alfred E. Smith Dinner in Washington D.C., held just a few short weeks before election day.
The book gives valuable insights into these key events, along with play-by-play analysis of the moderator-biased presidential and vice-presidential debates.
At the beginning of “Kamala Seinfeld: A Campaign About Nothing”—the title of the chapter on the Trump/Harris debate—Mr. Concha inserts a quote from Frank Luntz, GOP Polster where Mr. Luntz went on record to say that because of his performance in that debate, Trump would lose the election.
More than a dozen such failed predictions by notable conservatives and leftists are given throughout the book. For his part, Mr. Concha reminds the reader that he confidently predicted on air in February 2024 that Trump would win. He became even more certain when he witnessed on live TV that Trump emerged victorious to urge “Fight, fight, fight!” after his near assassination. Then, in October 2024, Mr. Concha assured that “Trump wins this quite easily.”
Candidate and President Trump has been an authentic master at common parlance, political rhetoric, and memorable images. Covering the campaign as closely as Mr. Concha did readily reveals many Trump gems, and readers will enjoy them.
When it came time to select the appropriate visual for the cover of The Greatest Comeback Ever, Mr. Concha chose the one from McDonald’s, “only because that campaign stop perfectly encapsulated Trump’s appeal, his humor, and his ability to troll Kamala and the Democrats while sending the media into an absolute tizzy.”
Throughout The Greatest Comeback Ever, Mr. Concha recalls outrageous quotes, names names associated with those quotes, and doesn’t pull any punches in exposing the ridiculousness of the quotes and quoters.
And he identifies one of the best political ads ever, the one that ended with: “Kamala Harris is for they/them, Donald Trump is for you.”
Brilliant, pithy taglines such as this one will likely resonate with common-sense voters for elections to come, while whoever came up with it should be awarded a political Pulitzer.
The Greatest Comeback Ever nicely documents an exceptionally critical time in American life and politics.
The barrage of partisan and personal attacks against Mr. Trump may have been the worst in the history of campaigning. A Reagan-era SDI/Golden Dome type defense for candidate Trump would have come in handy.
Regardless, Mr. Concha emphasizes that Mr. Trump “had every powerful entity aimed at him: the Justice Department, the FBI, two presidential administrations, the media, and two assassins, yet he still won bigly. This truly was the greatest comeback of all time. The ultimate American story of perseverance and redemption.”
Considering the dreadful alternative outcome on November 5, 2024, we can add “Amen.”
Anthony J. Sadar is a Certified Consulting Meteorologist and an adjunct associate professor of science at Geneva College, Beaver Falls, PA. He is also co-author of Environmental Risk Communication: Principles and Practices for Industry (CRC Press).
Image: Fair Use.