2024 was a year of contrasts where progress was made in some areas and setbacks in others. It was a year filled with change and surprising events at every turn, but we start 2025 with a hope for a new beginning and ready to tackle challenges.
The Good
The most significant good of 2024 was President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in November — the greatest political comeback perhaps in all of history. Over 77 million Americans voted for Trump. Trump won every single battleground state. Trump won both the Electoral College and the popular vote, and he made substantial gains with Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, women, Jewish Americans, young voters and Arab Americans.
In New York City, Vice President Kamala Harris suffered the weakest turnout for a Democrat presidential candidate since 1988. But it was not just New York — all 50 states moved to the right.
Trump’s campaign itself revolutionized our political culture. From reaching younger audiences through podcast appearances, running a grassroots operation in states like Pennsylvania, and accelerating Republicans’ progress with digital strategy, Trump changed the way the game is played.
His coalition is composed of a diverse and out of the box individuals like Tulsi Gabbard, a Somoan-American woman and former Democrat; RFK Jr., an environmental lawyer and a Kennedy; Vivek Ramaswamy, a libertarian tech wiz; Elon Musk, the richest businessman on the planet and also a former Democrat. He routinely included celebrities at his events such as Hulk Hogan and Kid Rock.
Another significant good of 2024 was the collapse of the lying legacy media. In an astounding response to pressure for accountability, ABC News will pay Trump’s presidential foundation $15 million to settle a defamation suit after anchor George Stephanopoulous falsely claimed that Trump was found “liable for rape.” It is no surprise that ratings and viewership for outlets like CNN and MSNBC have dropped in the weeks since the election. Let’s hope in 2025 we have a return to more traditional fact-based journalism from the legacy media.
The Bad
The biggest bad was Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign which has resulted in a “mask-off moment” for the Democratic Party after years of deceit.
Perhaps most notably, we lived through one of the worst cover-ups in American history: Biden’s cognitive decline. Biden-Harris staffers, Harris herself, strategists, the media, campaign surrogates and many others were all complicit in working to hide Biden’scognitive decline from the American people. Although this was unfathomable, it ultimately led to the exposure of the legacy liberal media and Democratic Party.
Besides the cover-up, we had an escalation of global conflict — the war between Israel and Hamas, the war in Ukraine. From the illegal immigration crisis caused by the Biden-Harris administration allowing millions of illegal immigrants to cross the border and wreak havoc, the many ways the Biden-Harris administration infused DEI into the federal government, to Joe Biden commuting 1,500 sentences, pardoning 39 people in the biggest single-day act of clemency, and sickeningly issuing additional commutations for most of the inmates currently on federal death row.
The Ugly (Beautiful)
The reason Trump’s victory was called a “comeback” is exactly because there have been so many hardships. This is why “the ugly” of 2024 has been Trump’s journey to victory. It is a journey defined by mug shots, assassination attempts, lawsuits, heinous attacks by the media and more.
But despite the ugliness, God intended it to happen this way. All heroes suffer. Every setback elevated Trump to a new level of trust and connection with the American people. Every setback brought him closer to victory.
Without these setbacks, and without Trump being willing to sacrifice everything for our great nation, the American people would not have been privy to certain realities. The lawfare against Trump was a necessary evil to expose the Left’s weaponization of the justice system.
If Trump and the American people had not suffered through so much, we never would have discovered our strength and felt the sheer sweetness of a phenomenal political comeback. In life, we must feel the bad to feel the good. Trump’s journey to victory was not easy, but it was ultimately beautiful.
This year will not be easy either. As we walk our journey with faith and humility, as we strip away the waste, fraud and abuse and as we vow to never get complacent, it becomes apparent that the Golden Age of America is coming.
Nicole Kiprilov is a Republican strategist, the Executive Director of The American Border Story, the President of the Coalition for Military Excellence, and a Portfolio Manager at The America Fund. She is a Fellow at Independent Women’s Forum and Club for Growth Foundation. Nicole frequently appears on Newsmax, One America News, and Real America’s Voice.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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