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What to know about Mike Tyson’s early boxing career

It seems like ages since the highly anticipated fight between ‘Iron Mike’ Tyson and Jake ‘The Problem Child’ Paul was first announced, but after months and months of debates, pushbacks and wondering whether the fight would ever happen, we are officially less than 10 days from the event.

Mike Tyson, former heavyweight champion of the world, is now 58 years old. He hasn’t fought in a non-exhibition match since 2005. He’s a shadow of the fighter he once was, but that shadow still looms very large. A lot of people nowadays don’t understand just how dominant Tyson was in his heyday.

Here’s a look back at the start of Mike Tyson’s career and whether it will have any bearing on his upcoming fight against Paul.

Mike Tyson’s first fight

After years of fighting as an amateur, Tyson made his professional debut at 18 years old on March 6, 1985. He defeated Hector Mercedes by first-round TKO. His first nationally televised event came less than a year later on Feb. 16, 1986. Tyson was awarded victory over Jesse Ferguson after the referee stopped the match in the middle of the sixth round.

Tyson’s career accomplishments

Throughout his career, Tyson was named heavyweight champion across multiple organizations including the WBA, WBC and IBF. In fact, Tyson was the first heavyweight ever to hold all three titles at the same time.

His first heavyweight title came after a second-round TKO victory over Trevor Berbick, earning him the WBC title and making him the youngest champion (20 years, 4 months) in history.

Tyson started his career with 19 consecutive knockouts. He bolted to a 37-0 (33 KOs) record before suffering his first loss at the hands of Buster Douglas on Feb. 11, 1990. Douglas’ win is considered one of the most shocking upsets in the history of boxing.

Tyson also once famously beat opponent Marvis Frazier by TKO in 30 seconds.

Tyson’s most recent fight

Tyson’s final professional fight came in 2005, a match against Kevin McBride. Tyson quit before the seventh round and admitted later that he only accepted the fight for the money.

Since then, Tyson has appeared only in exhibition matches. Most recently, Tyson fought Roy Jones Jr. on Nov. 28, 2020. The fight ended in a split decision draw.

How to watch Tyson vs. Paul

Date: Friday, Nov. 15
Time: 8 p.m. ET
TV: Not available on TV
Streaming: Netflix

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Israel takes hard line against terrorists, allowing deportation of family members

A new law in Israel allows for the deportation of family members of Palestinian attackers, including Israelis, to the Gaza Strip or another location.

Passed by Israel’s parliament, known officially as Knesset, early on Thursday with a 61-41 vote, the law was championed by members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and his far-right allies. Deportation of a terrorist’s immediate family member could be ordered by the interior minister authority following a hearing, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Family members who had advance knowledge of an attack and failed to report it to police or ‘expressed support or identification with an act of terrorism or published words of praise, sympathy or encouragement for an act of terrorism or a terrorist organization’ would be subject to the law, The Times of Israel reports. 

They would be deported for a period of seven to 20 years. The Israel-Hamas war is still raging in Gaza, where tens of thousands have been killed and most of the population has been internally displaced, often multiple times. 

Legal experts believe that any attempt to implement the law would likely lead to it being struck down by Israeli courts.

‘The bottom line is this is completely nonconstitutional and a clear conflict to Israel’s core values,’ Eran Shamir-Borer, a senior researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute and a former international law expert for the Israeli military, told the Associated Press. 

It is unclear if the law will apply in the occupied West Bank, where Israel already has a long-standing policy of demolishing the family homes of attackers. Palestinians have carried out scores of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks against Israelis in recent years.

Palestinians living in Israel make up around 20% of the country’s population. They have citizenship and the right to vote but face widespread discrimination. Many also have close family ties to those in the territories and most sympathize with the Palestinian cause.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Viral Olympic breaker Raygun retires from competition after backlash

Australian breakdancer Rachael Gunn, more commonly known as B-Girl Raygun, announced she is retiring from competitive breaking after her ‘upsetting’ experience following the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Gunn became a viral sensation this summer after her unique performance in the inaugural Olympic breaking event raised some eyebrows and sparked backlash, criticism she says led her to calling it quits professionally.

‘I’m not going to compete anymore,’ Gunn said during an appearance on the ‘Jimmy & Nath Show’ on Australia’s 2DayFM. ‘I was going to keep competing, for sure, but that seems really difficult for me to do now to approach a battle. Yeah, I mean I still dance, and I still break. But, you know, that’s like in my living room with my partner.’

She added: ‘It’s been really upsetting. I just didn’t have any control over how people saw me or who I was.’

Gunn, a 37-year-old college professor in Sydney, gained notoriety at the Paris Games after she lost all three of her group-stage breaking battles and failed to score a single point. One of her most popular moves was ‘the kangaroo,’ where she mimicked Australia’s national animal.

‘Dancing is so much fun and it makes you feel good and I don’t think people should feel crap about, you know, the way that they dance,’ she said.

Breaking will not be in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, but when asked hypothetically if she would ever compete at the Olympics again, Gunn emphatically said, ‘no.’ She said she won’t even compete professionally.

‘I think the level of scrutiny that’s going to be there and the people who will be filming it and it’ll go online, it’s just not going to mean the same thing,’ Gunn said. ‘It’s not going to be the same experience because of everything that’s at stake.’

Gunn said she faced many conspiracy theories on her qualification for the Olympics. An online petition accusing Gunn of rigging the selection process received 50,000 signatures before it was taken down at the request of the Australian Olympic Committee. Gunn called the theories ‘totally wild,’ but said she tries to focus on the ‘positives’ that came out of her Olympic experience.

‘That’s what gets me through it,’ Gunn said. ‘The people that have like (said), ‘You have inspired me to go out there and do something that I’ve been too shy to do. You’ve brought joy, you’ve brought laughter. You know, we’re so proud of you.”

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Cole Leinart, son of Matt Leinart, announces college commitment

A familiar last name will soon return to college football.

Cole Leinart, the son of former USC national champion quarterback Matt Leinart, announced his commitment to SMU on Wednesday via social media.

‘Proud dad,’ Matt Leinart posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday.

Matt Leinart, the 2004 Heisman Trophy winner, was the No. 10 pick of the 2006 NFL draft after winning the 2003 and 2004 national championships with the Trojans. He was selected to two All-American teams and his No. 11 jersey is retired at USC.

Matt Leinart’s NFL career wasn’t nearly as successful, however, as he completed 366 of 641 passes for 4,065 yards with 15 touchdowns to 21 interceptions in his seven-year career. He started 16 games in his first two seasons with the Arizona Cardinals but was benched midway through the 2007 season and only started two more games the rest of his career.

Cole Leinart is now set to join SMU, a program with loads of momentum. The Mustangs are currently ranked No. 13 in the College Football Playoff rankings and are 8-1 in their first ACC season with a solid chance at making the 12-team playoff.

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Trending up and down in the NBA: What’s wrong with the Bucks, Sixers?

The Milwaukee Bucks are 1-6, the Philadelphia 76ers 1-5, the Cleveland Cavaliers 8-0 and the Oklahoma City Thunder 7-0.

The Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors are 6-1. And not surprisingly, the defending champion Boston Celtics are 7-1.

It’s early in the 2024-25 NBA season and there’s plenty of time for things to change. But can the Suns and Warriors be top-six teams in the deep Western Conference? Can the Cavaliers challenge the Celtics for the top spot in the Eastern Conference, or at least get the No. 2 seed? Will the Celtics cruise to 60-plus victories as they try to become the first team to repeat since Golden State in 2017 and 2018?

Let’s looking at teams trending up and trending down in the NBA after two weeks of the season. (Records and stats prior to Wednesday’s games):

Trending up: Oklahoma City Thunder

The Thunder have an MVP candidate in Shai-Gilgeous Alexander and potential All-Stars in Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams. Oklahoma City is loaded and deep with a trajectory that is designed to maximize the present and the future.

The Thunder should be good for a long time, possibly putting together a run that looks similar to the days with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden.

Oklahoma City will have to spend money, especially when Alexander is due for his next contract and Holmgren and Williams are up for rookie extensions. However, Thunder general manager Sam Presti is preparing for those days. The Thunder in the offseason signed contributors Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe to valuable contracts that pay both players less in the final two seasons than they do in the first two seasons.

Presti continues to succeed in the draft, too. The Thunder acquired second-round pick (No. 38 overall) Ajay Mitchell in the June draft, and he’s already getting quality playing time.

Trending down: Milwaukee Bucks

Damian Lillard is still trying to find his place with the Bucks alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Milwaukee’s defense is struggling early, allowing 116.5 points per 100 possessions, 22nd in the league. Before a full accounting can be made of how troubling this start is, the Bucks need to get Khris Middleton back in the lineup.

He doesn’t solve all of their issues though. Depth is a concern, and Milwaukee has had trouble hitting on draft picks. Since the Bucks haven’t been a lottery team since 2016, they’re usually picking in the second half of the first round and often in the 20s. They didn’t have a first-round pick in 2023 and had to forfeit a second-round pick in 2022. The team also just declined an option year on 2022 first-round pick MarJon Beauchamp’s rookie contract and is looking to trade him.

Part of this illustrates how difficult it is to draft and sign the right players in free agency, and even bigger than that, it reveals how difficult it is to win multiple championships even with a player as great as Antetokounmpo on the roster.

If the losing continues, there will be even more chatter about blowing up the roster and trading Antetokounmpo, but trading a two-time MVP superstar who is still All-NBA, puts fans in the seats and sells merchandise usually isn’t high on ownership’s to-do list – no matter how much interest Golden State has in Antetokounmpo.

Trending up: Denver Nuggets

The Nuggets started 0-2 and won their next two in overtime. Close to an 0-4 start which would’ve made the tension even thicker in Denver where the Nuggets are, like the Bucks, trying to capitalize on winning another title with a generational superstar (three-time MVP Nikola Jokic).

Since winning a championship in 2023, the Nuggets have lost depth (Jeff Green, Bruce Brown, Reggie Jackson, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope), and general manager Calvin Booth has tried to replace them with young draft picks.

The Nuggets might be seeing that effort pay off. In Monday’s victory against Toronto, the Nuggets closed the game with Christian Braun (No. 21 pick in 2022), Peyton Watson (No. 30 pick in 2022) and Julian Strawther (No. 29 pick in in 2023) on the court. Braun is a strong defender and averaging a career-high 14.9 points on 54.2% shooting from the field and 45% on 3-pointers.

Aaron Gordon’s calf strain, which will sideline him for a few weeks, will test that depth. (An aside: Gordon opting into the final year of his deal for next season and agreeing to an extension which begins in 2026-27 saves the Nuggets about $40 million in luxury taxes for next season).

Jokic continues to prove why he is a three-time MVP and the world’s best player. He averages 29.6 points, 12.6 rebounds, 10.3 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.1 blocks and shoots 54.3% from the field and 53.1% on 3s. The rate on 3s isn’t sustainable – he’s never shot better than 39.6% in a season – but he’s off to a great start.

So much of Denver’s success depends on Jamal Murray, who signed a four-year, $207.8 million extension in September. He is off to a slow start offensively, shooting 37% from the field and 30.4% on 3s. He’s in the league’s concussion protocol but is expected back in the lineup soon. And the Nuggets need him at an All-Star level.

Trending up: Cleveland Cavaliers

Donovan Mitchell’s extension, which goes through 2027-28 with a player option on that final season of the deal, gave the Cavaliers a chance to see what’s possible with their core four (Mitchell, Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley) intact for a few seasons and without contract drama.

The Cavaliers are making a case that they should be considered the second-best team in the East with the No. 2 offense (121 points per 100 possessions), No. 5 defense (108.3 points allowed per 100 possessions) and No. 4 net rating (plus-12.7).

New coach Kenny Atkinson, who was a longtime assistant coach, then head coach in Brooklyn and then an assistant under Steve Kerr with Golden State, has fine-tuned the offense. The Cavs are No. 2 in 3-point percentage and No. 6 in 3s made per game.

Trending down: Philadelphia 76ers

It’s an awful start to the season for the 76ers which includes a 1-5 record, Joel Embiid’s absence with a knee problem, his three-game suspension for shoving a reporter, the team’s $100,000 fine for violating the NBA’s player participation policy and Paul George missing the first five games with his new team. But like the Bucks, the Sixers need to have their best players on the court together before conclusions can be made. They’re in the headlines for the wrong reasons.

Embiid, who is expected to return soon, and George need to provide offensive help immediately for a team that is No. 29 in field goal percentage, 25th in 3-point shooting percentage and 26th in offensive rating.

Trending down: New Orleans Pelicans

After winning 49 games last season and acquiring Dejounte Murray in the offseason to go with Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram, expectations were considerable. It’s starting to fizzle after a 3-5 start which includes four losses in their past five games. Murray injured his hand in the season opener and is out 4-6 weeks after undergoing surgery. Williamson has missed three games and is listed on the injury as questionable with right thigh soreness.

Trending up: Phoenix Suns

New coach Mike Budenholzer has the Suns on a five-game winning streak. Budenholzer is putting his defensive imprint on the team, which is No. 6 in points allowed per 100 possessions. Phoenix is also seventh in 3s made per game and seventh in 3-point shooting percentage. Kevin Durant averages 27.1 points and is shooting 54.8% from the field and 43.6% on 3s, Bradley Beal is making an offensive contribution with solid shooting stats (50.8% from the field, 43.8% on 3s.) and new point guard Tyus Jones averages 9.4 points and 6.6 assists. The Suns are now waiting for Devin Booker to get rolling with his shot (41.9% from the field, 35.7% on 3s).

Trending up: Golden State Warriors

The Golden State Warriors won three games without Steph Curry and have the No. 4 offense and No. 2 defense – all while playing 13 guys at least 11.9 minutes per game, with not one player above 28.1 minutes. Some of that is due to injuries to Curry, Andrew Wiggins and De’Anthony Melton but regardless, Kerr plans to use a deep rotation, keep players fresh and try to win with a gritty style.

Trending down: Orlando Magic

The joy and potential of a 3-1 start with Paolo Banchero playing great – 33 points in the opener and 50 points in the fourth game – evaporated with Banchero’s injury (torn right oblique), sidelining him for at least another four weeks. The Magic have now lost four in a row, including three without Banchero. There are winnable games on the schedule but Orlando’s depth and ability to play without their best player will be a focal point of this stretch.

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Mike Tyson vs Jake Paul predictions: Experts weigh in on Netflix event

Mike Tyson and Jake Paul will fight in less than two weeks as part of their Netflix boxing special scheduled for Friday, Nov. 15 at AT&T Stadium and give us an answer to the question that surfaced just as soon as this spectacle was announced nearly eight months ago.

Can a 58-year-old version of Tyson returning from a health issue last May knock out Paul, the 27-year-old YouTube star who built a lucrative career as a boxer and promoter through a series of exhibition bouts in recent years? With custom fight rules and the unknown of what Tyson might look like four years removed from his last appearance in the ring for a match, speculation about a winner has been all over the place.

Now, as the fight is finally approaching, more boxing experts, former champions and former Tyson opponents are offering their thoughts on who might win this made-for-streaming fight. Here are some of the latest picks and predictions ahead of Tyson vs. Paul on Nov. 15, as well as current odds and how to watch:

Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul predictions

Bob Arum, Top Rank CEO: Paul wins

‘A 58-year-old guy, no matter how good they were, no matter how athletic they were, are not gonna be able to fight,” Arum said in an interview with Johnny Boy Boxing last month. “You can’t throw punches like you’re supposed to, you can’t do a lot of things. I hope Mike doesn’t get hurt, but I really give him relatively no chance. You lose that muscle memory as you get older.’

Lennox Lewis: Tyson wins

“Mike Tyson’s gonna win. He’s not that old. Don’t take him too softly. We’re one year apart,’ Lewis told FOX 29 in Philadelphia during an interview last April. ‘You can fight somebody like that and do well, because the person you’re fighting is not a true fighter and there’s a hundred things that you’ve forgotten that he’s learning.’

Roy Jones Jr.: Tyson has the edge

‘It’s a young lion and an old lion. It’s a great situation for them,’ Jones said in an interview with FightHype in September. ‘It gives Jake a chance with Mike being as old as he is. I think it’s a great opportunity for both fighters but I still think Mike is gonna be a little bit too much for Jake.’

Buster Douglas: Easiest win of Tyson’s career

‘It’s not going to be good for Jake,’ Douglas said in an interview with Gambling Zone in June. ‘I don’t think there will be much of a boxing career left for Paul afterwards. I think once Mike gets rid of him, that’s it for his boxing career. The best scenario for Paul is to just last the entire fight, say he went the distance with Mike Tyson.’

Sports Betting Dime: Paul by decision

‘If this goes into the later rounds, Paul’s combination of youth and cardio will be the difference. Look for Paul to utilize his jab and footwork to keep Tyson on the outside. The heavier 14-oz gloves and two-minute rounds will also likely work against Iron Mike, potentially sapping his explosiveness in the second half of the fight.’

Tyson vs. Paul: Time, date and streaming

Date: Friday, Nov. 15
Time: Ring walk not yet announced (full event begins at 8 p.m. ET)
TV: Not available on TV
Streaming: Netflix

Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson odds:

As of Nov. 6, odds from BetMGM give Paul the edge against Tyson.

Moneyline: Paul (-250) | Tyson (+190)

Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight card

*Card subject to change

Super lightweight title bout: Katie Taylor vs. Amando Serrano
Middleweight: Neeraj Goyat vs. Whindersson Nunes
Welterweight: Mario “El Azteca” Barrios vs. Abel Ramos
Super Middleweight: Shadasia Green vs. Melinda Watpool
Lightweight: Lucas Bahdi vs. Armando Casamonica
Featherweight: Bruce Carrington vs. Dana Coolwell

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Morning Glory: Trump won—what a relief

There is a minimum skills set that is required of the Commander-in-Chief and it involves making decisions of life and death in real and often hurried time, decisions about protecting America and its troops. 

Long before the Afghanistan debacle many doubted President Biden’s ability to correctly make those decisions, including former Secretary of Defense Gates. Vice President Harris never gave a single interview in which she even attempted to demonstrate the skills set required which begins with thinking and talking on your feet even if only to filibuster effectively or provide cover for ongoing sidebar or secret negotiations. 

The second skills set are the varied abilities required to assemble a team of 3,000 or more people to join you in the administration. Not surprisingly President Donald Trump’s first time as a ‘president-elect’ had its share of ‘swings-and-misses’ on personnel because he’d never been a politician, had no large, lifelong cadre of political and government professionals on which to draw for guidance and support.

As a private sector, private company developer, the former and future president knew land development and television, and the promotional talents to succeed at both. His early success in Manhattan development branched out to his casinos and luxury golf course properties and far from New York City, but that successful set of developments included a standard number of projects that didn’t work out and went bust. Developers—I represented many large developers, both public and private, when I practiced law from 1989 to 2016—are all alike in some crucial ways, and none of them escaped recessions and the vagaries of the business. They are not at all risk averse and they are very much learning machines but not of the bookish sort. ‘Cut and fill’ to ‘balance’ a development site and ‘units per acre’ are among the many terms of art in the business of residential planned community land and leisure development, but not many people make the jump from that to elected politics. The skills cross-over is limited. 

So Trump spent quite a lot of time learning the traps and water hazards of D.C. in his first term. Trump knows he can rely on many people who were with him in the first term: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Ambassador Robert O’Brien, Ambassador Richard Grenell, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, and many more. His old diplomatic corps includes ambassadors he may well ask to return like Ambassador David Friedman who did so much for the U.S.-Israel partnership or Ambassador George Glass who was Trump’s first ambassador to a European country (Portugal.) Trump knows now on whom he can rely tomorrow. 

The Trump transition team(s) are both formal and informal, and the president-elect’s choices in the personnel arena many and varied. He will be much better at this process than he was the first time simply because it is the second time. If there is any important skill that isn’t improved by practice, I’m unaware of it. 

Despite the incendiary rhetoric of cataclysm that came from over-wrought voices on both left and right as the election drew close, all will be well and the United States will soon be back on the world stage, led by a confident president and an experienced team. We will be fine. 

What I hope most for is that President Trump finds a Cap Weinberger to run the Pentagon and leaves him or her to it, allows that person to staff the building and that those political appointees commit to serve for four years. We need talent and continuity at our most important department of government.

Wish as well for a wordsmith who can persuade the returning president to borrow from Lincoln’s First Inaugural for Trump’s second, especially these lines from its closing: ‘We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.’

Hugh Hewitt is host of ‘The Hugh Hewitt Show,’ heard weekday mornings 6am to 9am ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990.  Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.

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Donald Trump’s victory takes rocky career and turns him into a real-life ‘Rocky’

 Donald Trump’s second victory is even more remarkable than his first. The first was unexpected. He captured magic in a bottle. But magic comes once in a lifetime. The second time, he had to fight for it, sometimes fight what seemed like the whole world, especially the media. Fight and win. Love him or hate him, Trump is America’s real-life ‘Rocky.’ 

Mention Rocky and you can hear the original theme song playing in your head. You can picture him running up the steps to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, throwing his fists in the air like a champion.

That’s how legends are made.

Every culture creates its myths. We write books, plays and movies about our heroes. That’s what Sylvester Stallone did. He crafted a perfect Hollywood myth – an everyman who overcomes all odds to become a champ, to become larger than life. There is no one alive today larger than life more than Trump.

When ‘Rocky’ was released on Dec. 3, 1976, it became the perfect American story. An ordinary boxer who got a title shot from a champ who planned to mop the floor with him. Trump was a mere 30 then, building his own legend. 

The Rocky saga – nine movies so far – is similar to the political life of The Donald. Rocky lost his first big fight. Then he won the championship. He got beaten again against a bigger, tougher Clubber Lang, played by Mr. T, in ‘Rocky III.’ Then Rocky had to take back what had been his. Along the way, he learned how to be a husband, a father and, yes, even a diplomat. 

Trump’s career arc has been much the same. He came from money, there’s no denying that. But he built The Donald himself. A Nov. 1, 1976, New York Times piece about the future president admitted as much: ‘Donald Trump, Real Estate Promoter, Builds Image as He Buys Buildings.’ He’s had his share of mistakes and failures, heroes always do.

Just weeks before ‘Rocky’ hit the theater, the Times was describing a young Trump in ways he couldn’t buy today with all his cash: ‘He is tall, lean and blond, with dazzling white teeth, and he looks ever so much like Robert Redford. He rides around town in a chauffeured silver Cadillac with his initials, DJT, on the plates.’

That was the beginning of the Trump we know. He grew larger with media appearances and self-promotion. The press loved him because he symbolized the business community and was a great interview. He turned that celebrity into books, TV and movie spots, including a humorous cameo in ‘Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.’ 

NBC’s ‘Apprentice’ made Trump a household name as he laughingly fired people. The network gave him the red-carpet welcome in 2005 on ‘Today.’ They introduced him to the sounds of ‘The Imperial March,’ from ‘Star Wars.’ Weatherman Al Roker called Trump, ‘the intergalactic king of the universe.’ Trump parlayed that fame into a political career.

He launched it, no one else. Even when he ran for president the first time, he was his own best spokesman. If you had a radio or TV show somewhere in America, Trump would go on. I used to do a fair number of talk radio appearances. I lost track of how many times he would be on right before or right after me. No politician does that.

Trump did. That drive got him into the White House. That was the rise of Trump. 

Enough has been written about his fall to fill the Library of Congress. Not one, but two impeachments. An endless stream of prosecutions, friends and allies turning on him, countless media hit pieces, books and even a movie, all designed to knock Trump out of politics and either shove him onto the sidelines or into a prison cell.

Only one problem. He wouldn’t go. He wouldn’t quit. He kept on fighting. Kept on because, like Rocky, he doesn’t give up. That’s Trump’s real superpower. Not his charisma or storytelling. It’s that you can hit him with the kitchen sink or a garbage truck and he keeps on going. He survived not one, but two, assassination attempts. After getting shot, he stood up, fist aimed skyward, telling his supporters to ‘Fight, fight, fight!’

That photograph of a bloody, defiant Trump should win the Pulitzer Prize. There he is, surrounded by Secret Service agents, with his arm thrust in the air. It’s an unforgettable image, but It probably won’t win because it captured the essence of the man more than the media ever wanted. Even wounded and targeted by an assassin, Trump’s instinct was the American one. To fight.

That was the voice of our anger, the voice of our pain and the voice of our loss. The shooter wounded two and murdered former fire chief Corey Comperatore, Americans who were there just to hear the former president speak. But the assassin couldn’t stop Trump.

Now, Trump has another chance to rewrite the history books. No American has ever fallen from grace this far to come back on top like he has. That victory gives him a chance to do great things, perhaps even unite a fractured nation.

At the end of his brutal fight against the Russian Ivan Drago, right in the heart of the old USSR, Rocky won over the opposing crowd, and beat the powerful Russian boxer. Rocky took the microphone to win over, not just the crowd, but the world. There he was, bloody, battered and wrapped in an American flag: ‘I’ve seen a lot of people hatin’ me and I didn’t know what to feel about that, so I guess I didn’t like you much then either,’ he says. ‘During this fight, I seen a lot of changing. The way yous felt about me and the way I felt about you.… If I can change and you can change, everybody can change.’

Perhaps, after three knockdown elections, Americans, too, can change and stop fighting one another. That’s my prayer for Trump’s second term.

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How Kamala Harris’ failed 2024 presidential run mirrors her ill-fated 2020 campaign

Vice President Harris’ second failed presidential bid mirrors aspects of her first trek on the campaign trail in 2019, proving to be short-lived and unfocused on key issues important to American voters, experts say.

‘Both started with great promise,’ Tevi Troy, a presidential historian and former senior official in the George W. Bush administration, told Fox News Digital in an interview. 

‘There’s the sense that she’s the savior of the new flavor, the next generation for Democrats, and both kind of failed spectacularly,’ he said.

In December 2019, then-Sen. Harris suspended her bid for the presidency 11 months after entering the race, citing a lack of campaign funds and a lag in the polls. It wasn’t long before staffers exposed the disarray in her campaign.

But before she was one of the more prominent early dropouts among the field of Democrat contenders, Harris’ campaign started off with significant momentum, marked by her strong launch that drew a large crowd in Oakland, California. She was initially seen as a top-tier candidate.

However, as the campaign progressed, her campaign’s messaging became unclear and faced tough opposition from then-candidate Joe Biden as well as Elizabeth Warren, Tulsi Gabbard and Bernie Sanders.

‘Both [campaigns] ran aground on the same two things. No. 1 is her inability to communicate even the most simple idea to the American people. And it’s not because she’s not intellectually capable of doing it, it’s because she is in a box,’ Troy said of Harris.

‘She’s trapped,’ he added. ‘On the one hand, her inclinations and her voters are on the left, and on the other hand, she wants to win the general election, and to appeal to people in the general election, she has to renounce the more woke policies that she’s espoused throughout her life.’

But to do that, Troy said, would cost her excited progressive big donors.

Harris became the Democrat frontrunner after President Biden suspended his bid for re-election in July amid reports of his declining mental acuity in the wake of a poor debate performance against Republican former President Trump in June. Biden quickly endorsed Harris, who made ‘reproductive rights’ a top issue on the campaign trail, a strategy that would ultimately not win over enough swing state voters. Harris was the Democrat nominee for only about four months.

‘I don’t think voters felt like abortion rights were at risk,’ another GOP strategist told Fox News Digital. ‘They largely agreed that the voters should decide, which was President Trump’s message that it should be sent to the states for voters themselves to decide.’

‘I think our biggest strength was Kamala’s own words that she had so many far-left San Francisco liberal policy proposals that were all explained by her on camera during the 2020 campaign that we were able to deploy really effectively and target into districts where people have really negative views of those,’ the Republican expert said. 

And voters may have wanted more substance from Harris when it comes to the economy and the border. Preliminary data from the Fox News Voter Analysis, a survey of more than 110,000 voters nationwide, provides an early look at the mood of voters as they cast their ballots.

Voters say the economy is far and away the top issue facing the country, followed distantly by immigration and abortion. In a sign of inflation’s economic toll, roughly three times as many voters feel they were falling behind financially as those who feel they were getting ahead.

Harris also faced the challenge of decoupling herself from Biden but otherwise ran an ‘expertly run campaign,’ according to Philadelphia-based Democrat strategist Mustafa Rashed.

‘It was going to be hard to distance herself from the sitting president; she couldn’t use him as a surrogate because he was just not an effective surrogate,’ Rashed told Fox News Digital. ‘He’s not great on the campaign trail, and he’s not popular enough to outweigh the downsides of having him as your partner.’

Harris conceded to Trump over the phone on Wednesday morning after he clinched a majority of the electoral vote overnight. She gave her concession speech later in the day at her alma mater, Howard University.

‘The outcome of this election is not what we hoped, not what we fought, not what we voted for,’ Harris said. ‘But hear when I say … the light of America’s promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting.’

Fox News Digital’s Polling Unit contributed to this report.

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Politics

President Trump and Grover Cleveland: How presidential candidates triumphantly returned to the White House

President-elect Donald Trump succeeded early in the morning on Wednesday, and defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race for the White House.

Trump will take office for a second time in January.

The only other presidential candidate in history to win the presidency non-consecutively was Grover Cleveland, who was elected as the 22nd and 24th U.S. president.

Cleveland, born into a large family as one of nine children in New Jersey, according to WhiteHouse.gov., was raised in New York.

The former president studied law and became a lawyer before taking public office as mayor of Buffalo in 1881, according to WhiteHouse.gov.

Cleveland became the Democrat U.S. presidential candidate in 1884, while he was serving as the governor of New York. He was the first Democrat elected president after the Civil War, defeating his Republican opponent, Sen. James G. Blaine of Maine.

During his first term in office, he faced criticism for his veto of private pension bills for Civil War veterans, according to NPR.

Also during his first term, a proposed bill to provide Texas farmers with $10,000 in federal funds to be used for seed grain was brought to the floor, which he vetoed, according to the New York Post.

Cleveland called for Congress to reduce high protective tariffs from the Civil War, according to the Associated Press, and signed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887, which established federal regulation of an industry for the first time through its regulation of railroads, according to NPR. 

During his first term in office, Frances Folsom, who was 21 at the time, became the first lady with her marriage to Cleveland. To this day, Cleveland is the only president to be married inside the White House. 

Four years after becoming president, Cleveland was up for re-election. He campaigned against Republican Benjamin Harrison but was unsuccessful in his bid to return to the White House.

Cleveland won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College to his Republican opponent.

‘He began the race without a campaign manager; delegated most of the electioneering responsibilities to his running mate, Allen Thurman, who, at the age of 74, was not healthy enough to withstand the rigors of campaigning; and based the entire race around his proposal to reduce tariffs, which divided his own Democratic Party and unified the Republicans in opposition,’ presidential historian Troy Senik told History.com. 

In 1892, there was a rematch between Cleveland and Harrison, and Cleveland came out victorious, making him the first to return to the White House for a non-consecutive term.

Cleveland was the only president to hold this distinction until Trump accomplished a similar feat.

Trump was first elected as president in 2016, when he beat his Democrat opponent, Hillary Clinton. Trump lost the popular vote but won the electoral vote to win the presidential race.

Trump’s success stems from a background in business as a real estate developer, rather than politics.

In July 2016, Trump accepted the Republican nomination for president, was elected on Nov. 8, 2016, and was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2017. 

His first term in office included policies like tax cuts, energy independence, military expansion, improved health care for veterans and security of the southern border.

Also during his first term, Trump appointed federal judges, including three U.S. Supreme Court judges, and signed legislation to create the Space Force, the first new armed service since 1947, according to the U.S. Department of Defense’s website.

In 2020, Trump faced Democrat challenger Joe Biden for the White House and lost the election.

After years removed from the presidency, Trump began a campaign for re-election. He announced his third run for office in the days after the 2022 midterm elections and began two more years of campaigning.

Initially, Trump and Biden were campaigning against one another again. However, in July 2024, now-President Biden announced an end to his re-election bid and endorsed his vice president, Harris, as the Democrat nominee.

Trump defeated Harris in the 2024 presidential election, becoming president-elect. Trump is now the 45th and 47th U.S. president.

‘I want to thank you all very much,’ Trump said in an address to the American people during the early morning hours Wednesday, after the results of Election Day. ‘This is great. These are our friends. We have thousands of friends in this incredible movement. This is a movement like nobody’s ever seen before; I believe the greatest political movement of all time.’

‘I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected the 47th president,’ Trump continued. ‘And every citizen, I will fight for you, for your family and your future. Every single day, I will be fighting for you. And with every breath in my body, I will not rest until we have delivered the strong, safe and prosperous America that our children deserve and that you deserve.’

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