The 2024 Election Post-Mortem: How Trump Beat the Odds

On with Kara Swisher

New York Magazine

News Commentary, News, Society & Culture

4.2 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 7 July 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Despite the chaos of January 6th, 34 felony convictions, and his party’s underperformance in the 2022 midterms, Donald J. Trump is once again president. How did he defy political gravity to win again? Why did former President Joe Biden run despite overwhelming evidence that voters didn’t want him to? Was there a coverup to conceal his decline, as Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s book, “Original Sin” alleges? Why did former Vice President Harris run such a cautious campaign and refuse to distance herself from Biden? And was she doomed by Biden’s late withdrawal, or did her own mistakes cost her the election? As America enters its 250th year and a new political era, Kara speaks with the authors of 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America to answer these questions and understand how we got here. The trio breaks down how Trump beat back his Republican primary opponents, the Biden campaign’s fatal missteps, the Harris campaign’s stifling paralysis, and why Trump is now governing more like a king than a president. Isaac Arnsdorf is a senior White House reporter for The Washington Post. His reporting on the first Trump assasination attempt was essential to the Posts’s 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News, and he’s the author of "Finish What We Started," about the MAGA movement post January 6th. Josh Dawsey is a political investigations and enterprise reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Josh was part of teams at The Washington Post that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2022 for coverage of Jan. 6 and in 2024 for coverage of the role of the AR-15 in American life. And Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The New York Times. In 2022, he won the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the Presidency. Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or find us on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky @onwithkaraswisher. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Three people. I would never be. I can't even write it with myself.
0:03.0	I mean, a book of this scope on this turnaround is better with friends.
0:17.9	Hi, everyone, from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network.
0:21.3	This is on with Kara Swisher, and I'm Kara Swisher.
0:24.2	My guest today are Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Jossi, and Tyler Pager, three political reporters and the authors of 2024, how Trump retook the White House and the Democrats lost America.
0:36.5	It's easy to get swept up in the chaos of Trump 2.0 and forget how wild last year's
0:40.7	presidential election was.
0:42.5	But it's important to look back, analyze the presidential race with the benefit of hindsight,
0:46.8	and draw out the key takeaways.
0:48.7	And that's exactly what this book does.
0:50.9	Isaac Arndstorff is a senior White House reporter for the Washington Post. His reporting on the first
0:56.0	Trump assassination attempt was essential to the Post's 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News,
1:01.9	and he's the author of Finish What We Started about the MAGA movement post January 6th. Josh Dossi is a
1:09.4	political investigations and enterprise reporter for the Wall Street Journal.
1:13.0	Josh was part of the Washington Post teams that won the Pulitzer Prizes in 2022 for coverage of
1:18.6	January 6th and in 2024 for coverage of the role the AR-15 has played in American life,
1:25.8	or really death.
1:27.5	And Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for the New York Times.
1:31.1	In 2022, he won the Gerald R4 Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting on the presidency.
1:36.7	This conversation is very insightful, so stick around. Support for this show comes from ServiceNow,
1:51.1	who are enabling people to do more fulfilling work,
1:53.6	the work they actually want to do.
	...

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