It has been exactly a decade since President Donald Trump rode down the golden escalator in Trump Tower and launched the historic presidential bid that completely upended American politics.
Most of the legacy media did not take his candidacy for the Republican nomination particularly seriously at the time, to put it mildly. After decades of flirting with a White House run, the billionaire and reality TV star was finally, officially in on June 16, 2015, giving a freewheeling speech that served notice of the media-dominating candidate he would be.
"There are no words. How could you even have a straight face right now?" CNN commentator S.E. Cupp reacted moments after Trump's speech. "I mean, it was a rambling mess of a speech. That said, it was entertaining. I was howling."
It turned out to be the launch of a romp to the 2016 GOP nomination over 16 other candidates, an upset win over Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton the following November and the complete takeover of the Republican Party. Trump is now only the second president ever to win non-consecutive terms after losing re-election in 2020 but storming back to reclaim the White House in 2024.
CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes reported on how establishment Republicans were reacting to Trump's entry in the GOP primary, telling viewers, "While no one expects Trump to get close to winning the nomination, that doesn't mean they're happy he's in."
MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell asked a guest whether they had "any doubt that this is anything more than a carnival show?"
USA Today wrote, "it's hard to find a political analyst who sees Trump as a credible contender for the Republican nomination," while The New York Times characterized Trump's candidacy as an "improbable quest for the Republican nomination."
"It seems a remote prospect that Republicans, stung in 2012 by the caricature of their nominee, Mitt Romney, as a pampered and politically tone-deaf financier, would rebound by nominating a real estate magnate who has published books with titles such as, 'Think Like a Billionaire' and ‘Midas Touch: Why Some Entrepreneurs Get Rich — And Why Most Don’t,’" the Times wrote.
Politico ran the headline "Trump says he's running for president, really" and called the then-reality TV personality "God’s gift to the Internet on Tuesday."
"After years of head fakes about running for the White House, The Donald promised his two-decade game of pretend is over," Politico told readers. "If Trump follows through, his candidacy poses awkward dilemmas for a Republican Party trying to shed the clown-car image of fringe candidates that suck up media oxygen, but embarrass a GOP establishment desperate to reclaim the White House for the first time in eight years."
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"The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart similarly called Trump's campaign launch a "gift from heaven."
"I'm just really happy right now," a giddy Stewart told his audience. "A billionaire vanity candidate taking the escalator to the White House!"
"And what followed was a half an hour of the most beautifully ridiculous gibber jabber ever to pour forth from the mouth of a bats--- billionaire," Stewart continued.
Stewart and his Daily Show correspondents Jordan Klepper and Hasan Minhaj went on to act out over-the-top orgasms in excitement over the prospects of a Trump candidacy. Late-night comics similarly greeted the news of Trump's run with delight.
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NBC's Savannah Guthrie asked her then-colleague Chuck Todd if "this candidacy is for real" after having "seen this public dance from Trump before." Todd acknowledged this seemed more real but it wasn't clear yet that it wouldn't be "yet another publicity stunt."
MSNBC star Rachel Maddow offered a similar sentiment, saying she "can't tell if this is politics or if it's just PR from a celebrity."
Chris Cillizza, who at the time was a writer for The Washington Post, insisted Trump "is not now and almost certainly never will be a credible candidate for the presidency."
"Sideshows are fun until they want to be the main attraction," Cillizza wrote. "Donald Trump will never be president. He knows that. We know that. But his candidacy ensures that for the next several months (at least), he will suck the attention and oxygen away from the men and women who might be. That's great entertainment. But it's terrible for politics."
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Washington Post columnist Philip Bump knocked Trump's "funhouse-mirror presidential campaign announcement" and attempted to fact-check his "spectacular, unending, utterly baffling, often-wrong campaign launch."
"So here's the fact-check: Much of what Trump said is nonsense. But you knew that," Bump wrote. "If nothing else, let his candidacy serve as a reminder that no matter how rich or powerful you are, it's useful to have someone around who can say 'no.'"
CBS News' Norah O'Donnell asked John Heilemann, the then-managing editor of Bloomberg Politics, what he thought was "the point of [Trump's] candidacy," to which Heilemann responded by suggesting it was for publicity, insisting he will "not likely be the Republican nominee, he will almost certainly not be president."
"But he says the most provocative things like, ‘When Mexico sends its people, they’re bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists, and some, I assume, are good people' - what is your strategy and how can you succeed when you say things like that?" CBS News' Gayle King asked.
"Well, you can't," Heilemann answered. "The question is how can you become president. You can't by saying things like that."
The New York Daily News ran a cover depicting Trump in clown makeup and blasting him with the headline "CLOWN RUNS FOR PREZ."
"Can we stipulate for the purposes of this conversation that Donald Trump will never be President of the United States?" MSNBC contributor Mike Barnicle told his "Morning Joe" colleagues the next day.