In 10 years of Trump, the bottom line has stayed the same: ‘He rates’
Today (June 16, 2025) marks 10 years to the day that Donald Trump came down that golden escalator in Trump Tower and upended politics, norms, the world order.
With hindsight, everyone agrees, it was a turning point in American history.
At the time, it was ludicrous, faintly amusing and a complete waste of time for a serious political journalist to try and cover Mr Trump’s improbable entry into politics. For months afterward, the US media continued to put Mr Trump’s antics in the primaries in the gossip section.
I remember that my first serious mention of Mr Trump as a political figure was in my column in The National on October 29, 2015. I noted “Donald Trump’s boast that he is ‘a very militaristic person’” in the context of the martial posturing of almost every candidate seeking the Republican or Democratic party’s nomination to run for president.
By late October 2015, of course, everyone was covering Mr Trump closely, even obsessively. But back in the beginning, in June 2015, he was considered cartoonish, un-American and a non-serious punter. Even so, several serious outlets did despatch serious correspondents to check in on Mr Trump’s doings.
Politico offers an interesting fragment from the notebook of their correspondent Alex Burns, who was there in Trump Tower on June 16, 2015. He says that he interviewed several people who were largely unknown to America and the wider world at the time but have since become famous. They proved “prescient”, Mr Burns says with hindsight. Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy, predicted some Republicans would embrace Mr Trump because they craved access to celebrity culture. Another, Geraldo Rivera, said Trump would do well because he was simply more interesting to watch than Jeb Bush. Mr Burns writes: “I didn’t quote this at the time, but I have it in my notes: ‘He rates,’ Geraldo said of Trump. ‘That’s the bottom line. He rates.’”
What an epitaph for a shocking decade.
Originally published at https://www.rashmee.com
