The year 2024 will be remembered for three marvels: Donald Trump, Donald Trump and Donald Trump. He is Time Magazine's Person of the Year. Even Harry Houdini would be jealous.
The facts speak for themselves. President-elect Trump outfoxed and steamrolled four felony prosecutions in New York, Georgia, Washington, D.C., and Florida. The New York state prosecution culminated in 34 felony convictions, but the sentencing has idled in the horse latitudes and will die on a political vine. Mr. Trump himself threw a spanner in the works by engineering the United States Supreme Court's 6-3 pioneering decision in Trump v. United States (June 1, 2024), bestowing constitutional criminal justice immunity on the former president for presidential acts.
Rumors of Mr. Trump's political death at the beginning of the year were vastly exaggerated. He effortlessly captured the Republican Party's presidential nomination with no more than warmup exercises. Former President Bill Clinton earned the nickname "the Comeback Kid," but President-elect Trump has earned a salute as the super-phoenix of politics.
Mr. Trump crushed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in the general election while surviving two assassination attempts. His coattails enabled Republicans to regain a Senate majority and maintain control of the House to usher in one-party government.
"It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future," a quote often attributed to Yogi Berra goes. Who could have imagined that 2024 would witness the end of the Assad family's 53-year dictatorship in Syria and President Bashar al-Assad's cowardly flight to Moscow with his family? Who could have imagined the expulsion of Russia, Iran and Hezbollah as power brokers in the Middle East? What happens next is anyone's guess. Indefinite years in the wilderness in Syria like Libya or Somalia?
Russia's war against Ukraine continued with no end in sight. Russian President Vladimir Putin's hope for a blitzkrieg victory proved illusory. His hiring North Korean mercenaries seems an act of desperation.
But Ukraine is also wobbling politically and militarily. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's grip on power is waning. The willingness of the United States to continue funding the Ukraine war effort beyond the $170 billion already given since February 2022 is in doubt. President Joe Biden's authorization for Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied, long-range missiles inside Russia provoked Mr. Putin to declare that the United States was now a legitimate war target and that nuclear weapons were on the table. Putin elaborated, Russia "reserves the right" to use such weapons to respond to a conventional-weapons attack that creates a "critical threat" to its "sovereignty and territorial integrity." Is the world inching toward another Cuban Missile Crisis?
The post-Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-initiated war against Israel eclipsed Ukraine in 2024. Gaza has been reduced to rubble. Nearly the entire 2.1 million Palestinian population has been displaced. The war has extended to the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Yemen. Israel seems invincible, like Napoleon after Austerlitz.
But Israel is clueless about the future. It cannot remain a Jewish, democratic state if it absorbs tens of millions of Arabs. Israel is already domestically convulsed over defanging an independent judiciary and ending the 80-year-old military exemption for Haredi Jews. Let's pray President-elect Trump can pull a rabbit like the Abraham Accords out of the Middle East hat in 2025.
China emerged as a daunting rival to the United States in 2024. We have grown increasingly reliant on China for electric vehicles, computer chips, drones and solar panels. Its economy is growing faster than ours. Its economic tentacles have reached Africa and Latin America. Its nuclear arsenal is expanding in anticipation of a showdown over Taiwan. The United States is seeking to ban TikTok in retaliation. President-elect Trump has promised to impose punitive 100% tariffs on Chinese imports. Expect more of the same in 2025.
Why am I devoting so much space to politics? It's because whether you take an interest in politics or not, politics will take an interest in you. But let's move on.
2024 also witnessed the passing of MLB legend Willie Mays, "the Say Hey Kid." Can we ever forget his iconic over-the-shoulder catch during the 1954 World Series?
As Mays passed, pop-star celebrity Taylor Swift was entering the rarified billionaire class. Her Eras Tour was the first concert tour to gross more than $1 billion.
Did anything really change in 2024? Has the DNA of the species changed? Has the human narrative changed? Have the instinctive cravings for power, money, sex, fame and creature comforts changed? Has the Gospel changed?
Is change an illusion that only the wise apprehend?
As the curtain falls on 2024 and rises in 2025, may you prosper and thrill marching to your own drummer.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member