Donald Trump has won only one 2024 Republican nominating contest. So far.

But the
ex-president’s political power is growing by the day, propelled by his dominance in
national primary polling and the dawning sense that he might be the all-but-
inevitable nominee following his resounding win in the Iowa caucuses.

Trump has invigorated an initially lackluster White House bid by leveraging his
multiple criminal indictments to create a narrative of political persecution.

His influence is again dictating terms in Washington, where GOP lawmakers dance to
his tune on issues like government funding, Ukraine and immigration, and craft
legislative positions to boost his campaign.

Former President Donald Trump during a campaign event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire,
on Wednesday, January 17.
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On the trail, Trump’s remaining primary opponents, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and
former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, are gingerly stepping up attacks on him,
but they’re pulling their strongest punches over January 6, 2021, and his threat to
democracy to avoid angering his supporters. Haley has the best chance to defeat him
in an early state when New Hampshire holds its primary on Tuesday, but its
electorate isn’t representative of much of the rest of the nominating contests.

And there was a Trump-shaped cloud over the World Economic Forum in Davos this
week, as European leaders fretted that their nightmare of a Trump 2.0 may be coming
true. Business titans were beginning to process the possibility that in one year
and a day, a president who shook up the world could be back in the Oval Office.
Kevin Roberts – the president of the Heritage Foundation, which has largely become
a policy laboratory for a potential second Trump term – ventured into the well-
heeled lions’ den at a Swiss alpine resort Thursday and candidly laid out the
hardline vision for a new Trump administration that appeared to irk some in the
audience.

Trump’s shadow is increasingly looming over Americans who hear his vow to devote a
second administration to “retribution.” Such concerns spiked with Trump’s post on
Truth Social Thursday, in which he demanded “complete and total” immunity for
presidents “even for events that ‘cross the line.’” It’s a stunning vision of
unchecked authority even for an ex-president who is arguing in an appeals court he
can’t be prosecuted for trying to overturn an election.

‘Scared as heck’
Trump’s pursuit of a strongman presidency has some Democrats worried. Vice
President Kamala Harris confessed this week she was “scared as heck” that Trump
could win in November. Ironically, the return of that oppressive unease that
characterized his White House years for some of his detractors is what President
Joe Biden’s campaign is counting on to carry him to reelection. But given that
Trump’s power will rise with every primary vote cast in his favor and the fact he’s
running a more professional campaign than he did in 2016 and 2020, Biden perhaps
should be careful what he wishes for.

Trump’s enduring weight with Republicans on Capitol Hill has always been unusual
for a defeated one-term president and reflected his unbroken bond with GOP base
voters. But in the US House of Representatives, especially, Republicans are
increasingly mobilizing to push Trump’s political agenda and boost his chance of an
election win. On Thursday, CNN’s congressional team reported that senators trying
to cut an immigration deal with the White House are running into a problem: Trump.