“They came from all walks of life: union, nonunion, African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, Arab American, Muslim American,” Trump said in his victory speech. “We had everyone and it was beautiful. “This was a historic realignment that united citizens of all backgrounds around a common core of common sense.”

The campaign decided early on to focus most of its efforts on low-propensity voters — voters who rarely go to the polls and are more likely to get their news from nontraditional sources.

To reach them, Trump launched a podcast blitz with hosts popular with young men like Adin Ross, Theo Von and Joe Rogan. He attended football matches and UFC fights; where spectators cheered the arrivals, which were broadcast live on sports channels.

The campaign also sought to create viral moments. Trump visits McDonald’s; here he donned an apron, manned the frying station, and served his supporters through the drive-through window. Days later, he held a press conference in the passenger seat of a garbage truck, wearing a yellow safety vest.

Clips of these appearances have racked up hundreds of millions of views on platforms like TikTok, which Trump has embraced despite previously trying to ban the practice at the White House.

The appearances helped highlight an aspect of Trump’s appeal often overlooked by non-supporters.

Jaden Wurn, a 20-year-old student at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania who voted for Trump, said he was impressed by the former president in part because of his sense of humor.

“Trump can only have a conversation,” he said. “It could be politics. It could be culture. It could be golf. Whatever it is, he can sit down and have a nice, good conversation.” Be relatable. Make some jokes. He’s a funny guy.

Unlike past campaigns marked by backstabbing and turnover, Trump’s operation was widely praised as his most competent and disciplined, with credit given to Florida operative Susie Wiles, who will now serve as White House chief of staff.

Haunted by the lessons of 2020, aides have been careful to save money for the final stretch of the race despite being severely upset by Democrats and spending millions in legal expenses.

They also took risks, including outsourcing much of their paid voting operations to outside groups, taking advantage of an FEC decision that allowed unprecedented coordination with its newest donor, billionaire Elon Musk, and a PAC created by Charlie. Kirk’s Turning Point group.

As the race moved into the final stretch of the race, Trump’s team continued to exude confidence, even though opinion polls were inconclusive. They were on the offensive, planning rallies in Democratic states like Virginia and New Mexico, as well as what was intended to be the centerpiece event of the end of the campaign: a rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden.

But the event Trump had been talking about for years was derailed long before he even took the stage when a number of pre-show speakers shouted vile, vulgar and racist slurs, including a comedian who called Puerto Rico a “floating pile of garbage.” .”

Trump was furious, angry that the incident was being overshadowed by failures in the investigation and that he was being attacked for something he didn’t say.

While aides insisted they saw no impact on the vote (his internal data showed him leading, albeit by a razor-thin margin, in the final three weeks of the race), even Trump’s most die-hard supporters expressed concern that this was resonating with undecided friends as well. family members.

“A few of them were commenting that he was against Puerto Rico or that he was a racist, and I was trying to educate them,” says Donna Sheets, a 51-year-old caregiver from Christiansburg, Virginia, of friends who were not yet racist. Make your decisions in the final part of the race.

But Trump again saw an opportunity. Biden responded to the insults in the call organized by the Hispanic advocacy group as follows: They call Trump’s supporters “trash.”

Trump immediately realized this blunder and came up with the idea of ​​renting a garbage truck. Aides immediately scrambled to find a truck and print a “Trump” campaign sticker to tape to the side.

They also gifted him an orange worker vest; He decided he liked it so much that he continued to wear it onstage at the next rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Supporters began attending rallies with their own vests and trash bags.

Yet Trump has continued what at times feels like self-sabotage. He doubled down on his controversial promise to “protect women” and said he would do so “whether they like it or not.” He railed against former Rep. Liz Cheney, saying she would be less inclined to send Americans into war if she experienced what it felt like to stand with nine rifles “pointed in your face.”

And the Sunday before the electionAt a rally in Pennsylvania, an exhausted Trump, fully released, abandoned his stump speech entirely to deliver a profane and conspiracy-laden diatribe in which he said he “shouldn’t have left” the White House after his 2020 loss. I don’t really care if reporters are shot.

The performance was so uneven that Wiles was seen stepping out to look at Trump as he spoke.

While aides panicked, they encouraged him to stick to the plan. Taking the stage the next day, Trump appeared to acknowledge their efforts, repeating his familiar complaint that he was no longer allowed to call women “beautiful” and then asked for it to be removed from the record, saying: “So I’m allowed to do that, right, Susan Wiles?”

While his top aides gathered upstairs in his Mar-a-Lago office, Trump spent much of election night surrounded by friends and club members, as well as Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., leaders of the new Make America Great Again majority. spent in court with. It doesn’t look much like the old Republican Party.

Trump, described by aides as confident, intensely watched the televisions set up in the ballroom. Friends noted that this was more than a choice. He was fighting for his freedom. He will be able to end the federal investigations he faces as soon as he takes office.

After Fox News called the race, Trump appeared flanked by campaign staff and his family.

“This will forever be remembered as the day the American people regained control of their own country,” he said.