While many Republicans are licking their wounds after last night’s blue wave election defeat, some in the party, especially those close to President Donald Trump, are recalling his election to a second term exactly one year ago.
“America dodged a bullet last November,” said John Heubusch, the former executive director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute.
“Happy One Year Anniversary to the Greatest Comeback in American History,” tweeted podcaster Katie Miller, wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.
“One year ago today, President Trump won a historic election victory and secured a mandate to Make America Great Again,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who included a list of 11 fulfilled Trump promises in a posting on X.
And Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, “In just nine months, we’ve rebuilt our economy, strengthened our borders, and reignited American greatness, and the best is yet to come.”
A year ago today, President Trump secured a landslide victory — sweeping all seven swing states, winning the popular vote, and leading the charge to Make America Great Again.
In just nine months, we’ve rebuilt our economy, strengthened our borders, and reignited American… pic.twitter.com/XTD0nqJXg4
— Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (@SecScottBessent) November 5, 2025
Expected to lose in a tight election with former Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump instead pulled off a huge comeback by winning key battleground states in scoring a 49.8% to 48.3% victory. The Electoral College vote was 312-226.
In office, starting with a wave of Inauguration Day executive orders, Trump swept away many policies left by former President Joe Biden and moved quickly to install his America First agenda.
Several political pundits said last night that the GOP’s lopsided losses in Virginia and New Jersey were the result of a voter pushback on Trump’s moves so far. In addressing Republican senators at a White House breakfast on Wednesday, Trump took a matter-of-fact approach to the election blowout.
“It was not expected to be a victory. Very Democrat areas. But I don’t think it was good for Republicans, or good for anybody,” he said.
President @realDonaldTrump takes the stage with @JDVance on Election Night 2024.
Happy One Year Anniversary to the Greatest Comeback in American History. pic.twitter.com/Er02zpGFef
— Katie Miller (@KatieMiller) November 5, 2025
Heubusch, long a Washington insider before managing the Reagan Foundation in California, used his Substack blog to write a “what if” column focused on how Trump’s win over Harris on Nov. 5, 2024, changed the nation.
“On this historic anniversary, let’s imagine an alternate universe where Kamala Harris, the cackling understudy of the last administration, somehow stumbled her way into victory and the Oval Office,” he penned.
Heubusch suggested that Harris would have doubled down on Biden’s open border crisis, fed inflation, eliminated police, raised taxes, and destroyed U.S. foreign policy.
“It’s hard to imagine this country enduring four years of Kamala Harris while keeping its institutions intact. We’d face open borders, rising crime, confiscatory taxes, no peace in the Middle East, Taiwan lost, and a White House run like an HR seminar,” he wrote in the post shared with Washington Secrets.
“Instead, we’re still here, standing firm, and still free to laugh at the absurd notion of Kamala Harris as President. If nothing else, that’s an anniversary worth celebrating.”