Pro-Palestinian students holding banners demonstrate on May 24 in front of the White House to show solidarity with Palestinians and demand an immediate cease-fire to the Palestine-Israel conflict in the Gaza Strip. CELAL GUNES VIA GETTY IMAGES
In the United States, 2024 was a year that rewrote the political playbook, culminating in the return of Donald Trump to the White House.
The former president and now president-elect survived two assassination attempts and defeated Vice-President Kamala Harris to win a rare nonconsecutive term.
On Monday, Congress formally certified Trump's election victory during a session presided over by Harris.
The quadrennial ritual, clearing the way for Trump's inauguration in two weeks, went like clockwork and stood in sharp contrast to four years ago when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a failed bid to block the certification of then-president Trump's 2020 loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.
Trump's victory appeared to signal a shift in the US electorate, as he won all seven battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — while increasing his support among African American, Asian and Hispanic voters. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party, traditionally supported by US workers, faced a notable decline in backing from that constituency.
The Democrats, led by Harris, who secured her party's nomination on Aug 5 after Biden bowed out of the race in July, chose to run a campaign centered on abortion rights and personal attacks on the 78-year-old Trump.
However, polls consistently showed inflation and border security were top concerns for many citizens.
Trump capitalized on these concerns, promising aggressive action on immigration. He and his pick for border czar, Tom Homan, have vowed mass deportations upon taking office on Jan 20. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security had removed or returned more than 240,000 people to more than 160 countries between June and November — a stark preview of what is to come.
Harris, 60, led an amorphous "joy "campaign and limited her one-on-one interviews. The controversial selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate — over Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who represented a pivotal swing state — further weakened her bid.
During the campaign, Trump continued with his frequent rallies but also appeared on podcasts, such as Joe Rogan's, which is widely followed. Rogan invited Harris to a podcast interview but the two sides never reached an agreement on an appearance.
The year's political turbulence was not limited to the campaign trail.
At a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt when a bullet grazed his ear. The would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed by a law enforcement sniper.
How Crooks managed to access a rooftop not far from where Trump was speaking raised questions about the Secret Service detail.
In the wake of the attack, Kimberly Cheatle, director of the Secret Service, resigned on July 23, a day after she faced intense bipartisan questioning from Congress.
Migrants turn themselves in to the US Customs and Border Patrol officers after crossing over a section of the border wall into the country on Sunday in Ruby, Arizona. BRANDON BELL/AFP
The violence continued on Sept 15 when Ryan Wesley Routh allegedly attempted to assassinate Trump at a golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Armed with a rifle, Routh hid in shrubbery near the golf course where Trump was playing. A Secret Service agent fired four shots, forcing Routh to flee before he was later apprehended.
He now faces five federal charges, including attempting to assassinate a presidential candidate. Routh has pleaded not guilty, with his trial scheduled for September. If convicted, he could face a life sentence.
Despite these dramatic events, Trump triumphed in the Nov 5 election, securing 312 electoral votes to Harris' 226, well above the 270 needed for victory. In the popular vote, Trump garnered 77,302,440 votes, while Harris received 75,017,312.Republicans also took control of the Senate with a 53-47 majority and maintained a slight advantage in the House of Representatives, 220-215.
Trump's election served as a wakeup call for mainstream media, as most polls had inaccurately predicted a dead heat.
Trump filed a lawsuit against the Des Moines Register newspaper in Iowa and its former top pollster over a poll published three days before the election that showed Harris leading in the traditionally Republican state. Trump ultimately won Iowa with 55.7 percent of votes.
This legal action came shortly after ABC News agreed to settle a defamation case brought by Trump. The network donated $15 million to his presidential library and publicly apologized for anchor George Stephanopoulos' false claim that Trump had been found liable for rape.
Traditional media outlets continued to lose influence to alternative platforms such as X, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, a vocal Trump supporter, as well as to talk radio and podcasts.
Musk's posts on X even led to the scuttling of a continuing resolution to fund the federal budget. On Dec 20, Congress eventually agreed to fund the government via continuing resolution until March.
Trump has named Musk to co-lead the new Department of Government Efficiency with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
TikTok saga
TikTok, the immensely popular video-sharing platform, has had an eventful 2024.
In the spring, Congress passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act — which Biden signed into law — requiring ByteDance, TikTok's Beijing-based parent company, to divest the platform by Jan 19 or face a ban, citing national security concerns.
However, Trump, a former critic of the platform with 170 million US users, is now seeking a political resolution to allow TikTok to continue operating.
On Dec 27, Trump's legal team filed a brief with the Supreme Court, requesting a pause on the ban until his administration can address the matter politically. The brief said Trump opposes banning TikTok at this time and "seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office".
Days earlier, on Dec 22, Trump indicated he favored allowing TikTok to keep operating in the US for at least "a little while", saying he had received billions of views on the platform during his presidential campaign.
ByteDance has consistently challenged the legislation, arguing it violates free speech rights. TikTok maintains that its recommendation engine and user data are stored on Oracle-operated US servers and that moderation decisions affecting US users are made domestically.
Despite these assurances, a three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld the statute on Dec 6, prompting TikTok to appeal to the Supreme Court, which agreed on Dec 18 to hear the case, with oral arguments scheduled for Friday.
In a significant development, Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at the former's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Dec 16.
Journalists watch a debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden hosted by CNN, at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta on June 27. FRANCIS CHUNG VIA AP
Presidential pardons
On Dec 23, Biden commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 federal inmates on death row, converting the terms to life imprisonment without parole.
Unlike executive orders, clemency decisions cannot be reversed by a president's successor.
Trump restarted federal executions during his first term in office from 2017 to 2021 after a nearly 20-year pause.
Biden, who ran for president opposing the death penalty, put federal executions on hold when he took office in January 2021.
In recent weeks, he has faced pressure from congressional Democrats, opponents of capital punishment and religious leaders to commute federal death sentences before he leaves.
"Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss," Biden said in a statement.
"But guided by my conscience and my experience ... I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level," he said. "In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted."
Trump's spokesman Steven Cheung criticized the commutations. "These are among the worst killers in the world and this abhorrent decision by Biden is a slap in the face to the victims, their families and their loved ones," he said in a statement.
Earlier last month, Biden commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people and pardoned 39 more convicted of nonviolent crimes.
He also issued a full and unconditional pardon for his son Hunter on Dec 1, after repeatedly saying he would not do so. Hunter Biden had pleaded guilty to tax violations and was convicted on firearms-related charges.
The year also saw nationwide protests across college campuses over the Palestine-Israel conflict in the Gaza Strip. On April 30, the New York Police Department arrested about 300 pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University and the City College of New York after two weeks of demonstrations.
Beyond the political realm, natural disasters brought devastation to many parts of the country.
Hurricane Helene made landfall on Sept 26 in Florida's Gulf Coast as a Category 4 storm with winds of 225 kilometers per hour, causing devastation across 10 US states and killing at least 250 people.
Helene is now the deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland US since Katrina in 2005, in the New Orleans area, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Western North Carolina and the Asheville area were hit especially hard, with flooding that wiped out buildings, roads, utilities and land. Inland areas in parts of Georgia and Tennessee were also washed out.
Carter remembered
Former US president Jimmy Carter, who established diplomatic relations with China in 1979, died on Dec 29.
A Democrat who served one term after his election in 1976, Carter turned 100 years old on Oct 1, the first US president to reach that age.
Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, founded The Carter Center in Atlanta. The center is committed to advancing US-China relations.
"Today, the Center works to build synergy between China and the United States on issues of global importance, including fostering greater cooperation between them in other nations, providing resources and scholarship, and nurturing the next generation of young leaders who can shape the critical US-China bilateral relationship to be a cornerstone of global peace and prosperity," the center's website said.
Elsewhere, economic pressures and social tensions fueled labor disputes.
On Oct 5, some 45,000 dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports returned to work after their union reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike.
The International Longshoremen's Association suspended the strike until Jan 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract. The union and the US Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shipping companies, said in a joint statement that they have reached a tentative agreement on wages.
Another point of contention is the automation by machines at ports, which the ILA is concerned will cost jobs.
Agencies contributed to this story.
hengweili@chinadailyusa.com
