Former president, business tycoon, celebrity, outsider, Republican front-runner, likely matchup for President Biden in the 2024 presidential race and… criminal? It's no secret Donald Trump bears a lot of labels, but who is he really?
From the moment he descended the Trump Tower escalator and announced his presidential bid in 2015, Donald J. Trump revolutionized American politics in a potentially irreversible way by offering a fresh alternative to run-of-the-mill politicians that had dominated the spotlight before.
"It caused a sensation," Mark Anton, a former national security adviser to Trump, said in the new FOX Nation special.
Anton, a lecturer at Hillsdale College, broke down Trump's announcement speech in terms of student reactions in "Who is Donald J. Trump?," a six-part series exploring the riveting life of America's 45th president.
"I tell you the story from one of my colleagues," Anton said. "He assigned Trump's announcement speech, but he assigned the prepared text version and, in rereading it and teaching it to the students, he said it fell completely flat. Second time I taught the class, I went, and I got the actual transcript, which included all the adlibs, all the asides that were not in the prepared text…"
"It's the second version, is the one that broke through and [had] all the most memorable lines… it was so different than anything they'd heard before," he continued.
Before long, "Make America Great Again" became the rallying cry for Republicans hoping to reclaim the White House after eight years of Democratic leadership under President Barack Obama.
It remained the definitive slogan of American politics during Trump's four years in office and even now among Republicans supporting him in his fight to get back to the White House – even as others fight to lock him behind bars.
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But before it all, he was a rebel child from Queens who grew up shadowing his father's real estate empire, his ambition destined to turn him into perhaps the most notorious – and controversial – figure in modern U.S. history.
FOX News' Brian Kilmeade narrates as subscribers walk through the life of the former president and 2024 hopeful's rise to the spotlight, preceded by his intense work ethic and a desire to facilitate change – regardless of the size of the opposition and regardless of the consequences.
Along with the ambition, a series of negative labels have emerged – criminal, insurrectionist – and, at last, it seemed his opponents' accusations were recognized with a series of indictments that have haunted him throughout the year.
Though the labels follow him now as he vies for a second shot at the White House, he faces the unconventional challenge of staying out of more legal entanglements – but it appears he's up to the challenge.
"Donald Trump is 77 years old. He has a great life. He's a billionaire. He owns lots of golf courses and loves to play on them," said Kellyanne Conway, former counselor to Trump. "He could just go do that, but that's not what he wants to do. He wants to go back and finish the job he started, and people see that."
To watch all of "Who is Donald J. Trump?" subscribe to FOX Nation and start streaming today.
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