A quick warning.
There are curse words that are unbeeped in today's episode of the show.
If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org maybe a little hard to remember now, but when Donald Trump announced he was officially running for president again, this time around, he did not seem inevitable.
Far from it.
It was a week after the midterm elections where the Trumpiest candidates lost some key races.
Polls show Governor Ron DeSantis beating him for the Republican nomination.
He had very few endorsements from other Republican politicians.
Jonathan Karl covered Trump's announcement for ABC News, where he's chief Washington correspondent.
I was at Mar A Lago.
It was a really flat speech.
He was first of all, it was teleprompter Trump, you know, he's reading from the teleprompter, and there was no fire and brimstone to it.
It was kind of warmed over policy proposals.
It was flat.
But we will bring our supply chains and manufacturing base back home, as we were strongly doing during the Trump administration, and we will systematically bring People tried.
To leave the room.
I mean, I was there in Mar a Lago.
I saw people going to the exits halfway through the speech, and at one point there were so many people leaving that they actually blocked the exits.
They told me it was for security reasons, but, you know, I don't think he wanted a half empty Mar A Lago ballroom at the conclusion of his presidential announcement.
So not a great beginning.
When did it turn around?