Axelrod: Trump coming back as 'kind of a conqueror'

Democratic strategist David Axelrod said Sunday that President-elect Trump is coming back to the White House as “kind of a conqueror.”

“There's no way you could’ve imagined this set of [circumstances,]” Axelrod said on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.” “He — he left in disgrace, he's come back as kind of a conqueror, you know, that's the feel of this”

Trump’s return to the presidency follows a period featuring multiple struggles for the president-elect, including backlash from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots, multiple criminal indictments on the federal and state level, and two assassination attempts on the 2024 campaign trail.

“I do think, you know, there's — there's a lot of discontent in the country, a hangover from the … from the pandemic, inflation and people really wanted to give this town an angioplasty,” Axelrod said.

Trump is set to promise a “new era of national success” in his inaugural address Monday, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“I return to the presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success. A tide of change is sweeping the country,” Trump will say in the address, excerpts of which the Journal first obtained.

“My message to Americans today is that it is time for us to once again act with courage, vigor and the vitality of history’s greatest civilization,” the speech will continue.

The former president’s inauguration ceremony on Monday is set to take place inside the Capitol Rotunda instead of the West Front of the Capitol as a result of forecasted cold temperatures in the Washington region.

Expected attendees for the president-elect’s inauguration include President Biden, former President Clinton, former President George W. Bush and former President Obama. Other expected guests include tech moguls such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.