>> A stunning political comeback... >> NARRATOR: Donald Trump’s return to power.

>> A new chapter in American history will begin.

>> NARRATOR: Drawing on years of interviews, his long history of overcoming obstacles.

>> Trump cannot see himself through the prism of "loser".

>> NARRATOR: And opposition.

>> His second presidential campaign was a revenge tour.

>> NARRATOR: Now on FRONTLINE, Trump’s Comeback.

(audience cheers, band plays) >> Donald Trump returns to Washington, punctuating a remarkable political comeback.

>> ...comes back to the White House.

Remarkable when you consider the way he left the White House.

>> ...enjoying what was thought to be an impossible milestone.

>> You think back to after January 6.

The thought of him coming back to the presidency was not even remotely a possibility.

A total impossibility to everyone but Trump.

>> ...so help me God.

>> ...so help me God.

>> Congratulations, Mr. President.

(audience cheers) >> The political comeback is complete, he is now president... >> We will never see anything like this in the lifespan of this country, I think, ever again.

It wasn't just the most historic, most improbable, impossible comeback, it was a roar-back.

>> (mouthing) (audience cheers) >> NARRATOR: It was Donald Trump's greatest comeback in a lifetime of trying to prove he was a winner.

>> In the scope of American history, it's almost unbelievable.

In the scope of Donald Trump's life, it's kind of routine.

The story of his life is, is massive swings between utter failure and glorious victory.

(audience applauds) And here's Trump, about as triumphant as it gets.

>> NARRATOR: It's a story that goes back decades.

>> I don't think you can understand Trump's presidential career without understanding his history in business... ...in entertainment, his life story in New York, his father and the family that he grew up in.

For him, winning is everything.

♪ ♪ >> Tell me about the early days of Donald Trump.

What kind of a family life do you have?

I mean, did you go outside and play ball, or... Did you have what we call a normal life, a normal upbringing?

>> Well, Rona, I think I was probably brought up in a, in a very normal fashion.

♪ ♪ I have brothers and sisters, I have wonderful parents, wonderful family, really very wonderful family.

>> Are you like your dad?

>> Well, I hope so.

I have a very wonderful father, and I would hope I'd be somewhat like my father.

>> What's he like?

>> Strong, dynamic, gentleman.

>> Is he loving?

Kind?

Giving?

>> Absolutely, absolutely.

Totally.

♪ ♪ >> Fred Trump was a machine.

I mean, he was a human machine.

He was driven beyond whatever the description of "driven" could ever mean.

And when you look at the picture of Fred and you look at Donald, you see the great resemblance between the two.

And when you think about Fred's energy, you see how it is channeled through Donald.

>> The way the game got played in his household was, "If you did not win, you lost."

And losing was, you got crushed.

Losing was, you didn't matter.

Losing was, you were nothing.

>> NARRATOR: In the beginning, young Donald wasn't the winner in the family.

That was his older brother Freddie.

>> My dad was the favorite initially simply because he was the first.

He was the namesake and the heir apparent, right?

>> NARRATOR: Mary Trump has been publicly critical of the way her famous uncle and grandfather treated her dad.

>> He mattered to my grandfather as an extension of his ambition.

But as my father grew older, his personality became clearer.

He was sensitive, he was kind and generous, he liked hanging out with his friends, who adored him.

And maybe worst of all, he had interests outside of the family business.

My grandfather understood none of that.

>> He wasn't a killer.

His father told the boys to be killers, but Freddie was never a killer.

He wasn't hyper-aggressive, he wasn't hyper-competitive.

>> My grandfather treated him so poorly, with such little respect, and made his life miserable.

Donald was able to watch what my grandfather considered the mistakes that my dad made.

He took that lesson to heart and became the killer, the tough guy, the person who would do anything in his power to be the winner.

Could never be wrong, could never admit a mistake, and avoided being kind, because all of those things in my grandfather's universe spoke to an unforgivable weakness.

And my grandfather finally started to see in him the son he wanted.

>> NARRATOR: As he grew older, Donald seized the chance to be the winner in his father's eyes.

>> The older sister, Maryanne, told me that Donald was like a wind, a hot wind at Fred, Jr.'s, back.

He didn't quite throw him under the bus, to mix metaphors, but he was certainly right behind him.

Donald was standing right there and ready to take over.

>> Do you think you have to have a killer instinct in order to be successful?

>> I think you have to have some... To, to a large extent, I think you do have to have at least a winning, winning instinct.

I think that, um, the world is made up of people with either killer instincts or without killer instincts.

And the people that seem to emerge as, are the people that are competitive and driven and with a certain instinct to win.

>> NARRATOR: As Donald rose in the family real estate business, Fred, Jr., fell out of favor.

>> My grandfather shoved Donald's success in my dad's face a lot.

And, um, I think he found that difficult.

>> NARRATOR: He left the family business and became an airline pilot-- and an alcoholic.

>> My dad had just bought in, hook, line, and sinker, into the family's assessment of my father as an alcoholic failure who'd never accomplished anything, and their line about Donald as this extraordinary, self-made, brilliant businessman.

>> Donald told me that he and his father had perhaps been way too hard on him.

They used to say to him, because he was an airline pilot, "What's the difference between what you do, Freddie, and driving a bus?"

>> NARRATOR: After years of heavy drinking, Fred Trump, Jr., died of a heart attack at 42.

>> You had a brother, Fred, Jr. >> Right.

>> Who died.

Your brother was open, too vulnerable, maybe.

Drank.

Did this make you, I don't know, close up, keep it all inside?

>> I learned a lot of things from Fred, but I did learn for myself that I don't want to be open.

I don't want to make myself vulnerable.

♪ ♪ (traffic humming, car horn honks) >> NARRATOR: He had become his father's apprentice, and early on learned a vivid lesson in how to engineer a comeback.

>> There came a day in 1973 when the federal government sued Donald and Fred by name, and their company, for racial bias.

This was one of the greatest racial bias cases of its time.

>> This was a particularly egregious case, because the Trump Organization had allegedly put large Cs to connote people of color who were applying for apartments.

>> The government had him nailed.

He had, they had the Trump Organization nailed.

There were multiple Trump employees who confessed that they had been instructed to divert Black applicants for apartments, to discourage them, to tell them that apartments had been rented when they hadn't been.

>> Donald Trump's regular lawyers tell him, "Settle it.

"Just move on, do the right thing.

Do what you're supposed to do under the law."

And Trump's not happy with that advice.

>> NARRATOR: He wanted to fight the allegations.

He found one of New York's most notorious lawyers, the infamous Roy Cohn.

>> No one was as powerful as Roy Cohn.

>> Roy Cohn was the man about town.

He was the one who connected everyone.

He was the one who put people together and deals together.

In one day, you might see Carmine DeSapio-- he was an old Mafia don.

Or you might see Cardinal Spellman from the Catholic Church.

Or you might see George Steinbrenner, the owner of the Yankees.

They all were clients of Roy's.

It was a crazy assemblage of people.

(sirens wailing, car horn honks) >> Roy Cohn had 20 years of being a really aggressive, no-holds-barred, go for the jugular, fight back, "Anybody says something to you, throw it back at them" guy.

He was famous for that behavior.

>> I met him at a supper club.

And we were seated at tables next to each other.

We were introduced.

And he said, "Listen, I've spent two days with these establishment law firms about a case we have."

It was a civil rights case or something.

"And they're all telling us, 'Give up, do this, sign a decree,' and all of that."

He says, "I've followed your career "and you seem, you're a little bit crazy, like I am, "and you stand up to the establishment.

Can I come see you?"

And I said, "Sure."

>> NARRATOR: Cohn would lay out a comeback strategy that appealed to Trump: do whatever it takes to win.

>> When they met, Roy said to him, "You might be guilty-- it doesn't matter.

"Go after the Justice Department.

Don't ever admit guilt."

>> "Fight it-- you'll kill them.

Just deny everything and fight."

And, and Trump was totally taken by that, and he hired Roy Cohn as his lawyer.

>> That was a defining moment for Donald Trump.

Roy Cohn showed him that you can turn around a situation just by ignoring the facts and going after your attacker.

Trump countersued the Justice Department for $100 million.

>> I have never, nor has anyone in our organization ever, to the best of my knowledge, discriminated or shown bias in renting our apartments.

>> This is a classic example of where Trump begins to demonstrate something he talks about all the time today, which is, he's a counterpuncher.

So somebody comes after him and says that he's done something nefarious and horrible, and he just goes back at them with all guns blazing.

You know, boom, boom, boom.

And admits nothing-- never admit anything.

Never say you made a mistake.

Just keep coming.

>> The discrimination case wound up where the Trumps agreed to a large settlement.

And they played it as a win.

The strategy was, you always play it as a win.

>> Roy went on the offensive and said, "This is a victory-- Trump was vindicated."

He knew before anybody else did that the court of public opinion is often more important than a court of law.

The lesson from Roy Cohn was, "Don't go the way the establishment does.

Don't play by the rules."

>> NARRATOR: With Roy Cohn's connections and his father's money, Trump put his mark on Manhattan.

A luxury high-rise that could project his status as a winner.

>> When he built Trump Tower, he got a whopper tax abatement that was intended for poor areas of town.

His building was built a block away from Tiffany's.

That was an, you know, deteriorating area of town?

I don't think so.

You can get away with almost everything, and Donald took that to heart.

That's the only metric that counts.

>> NARRATOR: On opening night, Trump's salesmanship seemed to pay off.

>> And they had the fabulous opening.

La crème de la crème of New York showed up for the opening of the Trump Tower.

It was an amazing event, and it looked so glamorous, with the waterfalls and everything.

It was, it was really magnificent.

Donald was like a kid in a candy store.

He was so excited.

You know, you have dreams and aspirations, and you hope they're going to turn out great, and then when they turn out, and they're great, look how happy you are.

It was just a monumental day for him.

>> NARRATOR: Despite it all, he couldn't win over those he most wanted to impress.

>> The establishment of New York thought of Trump-- if they thought of him at all-- as a joke, as a vulgarian, as someone who was silly, who was just a vulgar builder.

>> When you talk to real estate moguls in New York, to this day, they disdain Donald Trump.

They thought he was a guy interested in self-exposure, and lacked humility and modesty.

>> He was considered loud and obnoxious and too self-centered and not someone who fit in.

This is where Donald's resentment of the elite comes from.

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Trump was determined to overcome the ridicule, to prove the elites wrong.

>> He realized that it didn't matter if the other rich folks rejected him.

What mattered was persuading the larger public that Trump was the height of luxury.

Put Trump out there as this impossibly rich playboy who had the ability to buy up anything and be this giant figure.

>> NARRATOR: It would become part of the Trump playbook: "Go big."

>> Donald Trump just doesn't know the word "small" or the meaning of the word "small."

His real estate holdings are enormous.

>> A prince of New York.

He's Donald Trump, the man who has everything.

>> Trump had an intuitive understanding that as long as his footprint was getting larger in the city, that he could eventually overcome what any establishment would think, and that they were going to become fossilized, and he would rise.

>> He puts his name on almost everything he builds, says it's a symbol of quality.

>> It did seem out of control.

Casino after casino after casino after casino.

Hotels, yacht.

Everywhere he turned, another big piece of real estate here, another big piece of real estate there.

(crowd cheering, whistling) >> It's all about Donald-- it's all he cares about.

He didn't talk about building a great company.

He talked about building Donald.

>> NARRATOR: Alan Marcus would become Trump's longtime public relations adviser.

>> Everybody puts complexity behind Donald.

There is no complexity, it's all simplicity.

It's all about Donald.

>> Okay, there it goes.

>> It's total narcissism.

>> NARRATOR: But behind the scenes, Trump's empire was in trouble.

>> The swashbuckling real estate mogul is in a cash crunch.

>> The businesses never really did that well.

He was a failure again and again and again, whether it was with his casino hotels in New Jersey, whether it was with the Plaza Hotel in New York.

One project after another would end in failure.

>> Trump's casino business will file for bankruptcy next month.

>> Midas had lost his touch.

>> Six bankruptcies.

Stiffing contractors left and right.

Vendors suing him again and again.

It is a litany of failure.

>> NARRATOR: Trump was being portrayed as a loser.

>> I think he was scared.

I think he was in a very bad shape for a long time.

But, but, but stubborn, and resilient, and, and demanding, and self-confident, all at the same time.

I mean, he never really weakened, and you never saw a weakened Donald.

>> With all your financial problems, do you think you will survive?

>> Why do you say there are problems?

>> Are you not having problems?

>> Don't, don't believe the press.

Don't believe everything you read.

>> Is everything financially okay?

>> Don't believe everything you read, I'll tell you that.

>> I don't think he really believed that it was over for him for one minute.

The minute he thinks that way, it's over.

"If I start to not think of myself as a winner, "then what am I?

"I'm a loser.

"That's, that essentially means I don't exist.

I'm nothing."

>> NARRATOR: It was the strategy he'd learned from his father and from Roy Cohn-- never admit defeat.

>> Now, a guy who has that kind of chutzpah is genuinely unique.

I think his most revealing book is "The Art of the Comeback."

The opening page, he says, "This is the moment where you either get depressed "or you start planning the comeback.

And this is the story of the comeback."

>> NARRATOR: To fuel that early business comeback, he turned to the key asset he had left, his name.

>> It really dawned on Trump that he could make a huge business empire out of putting his name everywhere.

"God, I don't have to kill myself trying to buy up land "and deal with zoning boards and, you know, go crazy.

"And half the time, it doesn't work, anyway.

Why don't I just sell my name?"

>> NARRATOR: For Trump, real estate was now a side business-- marketing his own name a full-time job.

>> It's amazing.

A Big N' Tasty for just a dollar?

How do you do it?

What's your secret?

>> NARRATOR: He used his celebrity to sell everything from computers to hamburgers.

>> Got a buck?

You're in luck.

>> Together, Grimace, we could own this town.

>> He's seen that it's a consumer country.

We're all consumers, we're trained to be consumers.

We're used to being sold to.

He's a really good salesman.

(bell rings) >> ..."Stone Cold" Steve Austin.

>> What's going on over here?

>> NARRATOR: He was willing to do almost anything.

>> Hey, look at this!

Donald Trump!

Donald Trump!

(crowd roaring) >> Donald Trump taking down Vince McMahon!

>> Oh, my God!

>> He was seen for quite a long time as a punch line to jokes about the excesses and the failures of the 1980s, and he'd become, you know, a human shingle, and a, a punch line.

♪ ♪ "The Apprentice" turned all of that on its head.

>> My name's Donald Trump, and I'm the largest real estate developer in New York.

I own buildings... >> Can you imagine, you're Donald Trump, and you've been creating yourself as the people's billionaire for 20 or 30 years, and someone comes along and says, "I want you to play that role on TV once a week"?

This was a dream come true.

I think Donald would have paid to get that gig.

>> And who will be the apprentice?

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Trump had come back big from the financial abyss.

>> For 14 seasons, he is viewed in a perfect light.

>> Okay, folks, I'm really busy today, so we're going to go quickly.

>> He's perfectly made up.

He's perfectly coiffed.

He's perfectly lit.

He's in the high-backed chair making tough decisions.

What does he look like?

He looks like a president.

>> ...no longer with us-- you're fired.

I have to say you're fired.

You're not gonna be thrown out, okay?

>> Thank you, thank you so much.

>> On a script, sure, everybody's a genius.

>> Sorry to interrupt you... >> Jason, Jason.

This is a tough one-- you're fired.

♪ ♪ >> People looked and said, "Wow, what a businessman.

What a, what a great manager."

♪ ♪ It's all a fantasy.

It was all fiction.

But people think it's real.

>> "The Apprentice" allowed him to tell his story on his own terms.

"I am a big, successful, huge developer.

I'm a billionaire."

He got to sell that image to America, and they bought it.

>> Donald Trump, Emmy-nominated... >> They loved it, and they couldn't get enough of it.

>> ...Donald Trump!

>> His popularity was never higher, and he could do no wrong at that stage.

And I think that he realized, "Wow, if I've hit the high, "let's take it to the... Where can you go from there?

I, I want to be president."

(camera shutters clicking) >> It was only after "The Apprentice" that he saw that he could take that fame nationwide, and if he could take that fame nationwide, what bigger stage was there to play on than the presidency?

>> The next president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

>> (chanting): Trump!

Trump!

Trump!

>> We love you, Donald!

>> How does my hair look?

Is it okay?

(crowd cheers) >> He recognized that entertainment is now a central part of American politics.

You can fuse everything that he had learned about celebrity and entertainment and ratings from having been on "The Apprentice" into a presidential campaign.

>> (chanting): Trump!

Trump!

>> We're tired of what's happening.

We're going to take our country back.

We're going to take it back.

We're going to take it back.

(crowd cheers) >> He had this way of connecting with people where they felt, improbably, that their voice in politics was a total political novice who, like them, is an outsider to the system.

They felt that he was, Donald Trump was clasping hands with them on the outside of the glass, pressing their nose, looking in, and saying, "When is it my turn?

What's in it for me?"

>> (chanting): Donald Trump!

Donald Trump!

>> This campaign is about giving a voice to those who don't have one.

I am your voice.

I am your voice!

(crowd cheers and applauds) >> This movement's been there, and it was looking for the right leader to say, "We matter."

♪ ♪ The wood was out there drying and drying and drying.

It was just waiting for the right person to throw the match in and then lead the fire in the right direction, and that's what Donald Trump did.

>> He speaks for the people.

Things he saying I've been saying for years.

When he wins, we all win.

>> NARRATOR: Trump was willing to go where other politicians wouldn't.

>> Donald says, "People love to hate, and so I'm going to build hatred for immigration."

>> Build the wall!

Build the wall!

>> And says, you know, "These people are rapists."

>> When Mexico sends its people, they're bringing crime, they're rapists, and some, I assume, are good people.

>> Establishment types recoiled in horror.

But this other segment of the population which had been ignored for so long saw, "That's our fighter.

That's our guy-- he's not with them."

>> I am with you, I will fight for you, and I will win for you.

(crowd cheers and applauds) >> "Finally, someone who doesn't care "if he's part of their club or not.

Which makes him part of our club."

♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: But then, just before the 2016 election, a crisis that threatened to end it all.

>> What happened on October 7 is, we were in a conference room in Trump Tower, and Hope Hicks was out in the atrium, and is signaling to me, so I went out, and she said, "I don't know what to make of this, it's just an email."

>> She got this transcript.

And she's, like, about to cry.

She goes, "Oh, this is terrible."

I said, "What are you so upset about?

What is this?"

(mumbles) "'The Washington Post' is going to publish this story in an hour."

And I go, "What's so bad about it?"

And she goes, "Well, look at it!

He says, 'I'm going to grab them by the (bleep).'"

And I go, "Oh, maybe I haven't focused on that."

So I look down, I go, "Oh, okay, okay."

>> You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful...

I just start kissing them, it's like a magnet.

And when you're a star, they let you do it.

You can do anything.

>> Whatever you want.

>> Grab 'em by the (bleep).

>> (laughing) >> You can do anything.

>> 100%, I thought it was over for Trump.

I didn't think he was going to withdraw after "Access Hollywood," but I certainly thought he had no chance of winning.

That was unlike anything we'd ever seen before, that sort of a tape with that kind of language.

>> The Trump camp has swiftly launched into disaster mode.

>> This is a political disaster.

>> A big, big development in this campaign as it comes... >> Reince had pretty much told the RNC, "This thing's over.

Exit stage left, get out of the building."

And there started to be this mass exodus.

>> Now we've got a full revolt.

Pence is nowhere to be found-- he's not out there saying...

He gives-- we get a letter from him.

Paul Ryan's out of the campaign.

McConnell's out, because they thought they were going to lose the Republican Party.

They thought every woman in America will never vote for a Republican again, right?

Because this guy's a barbarian.

>> NARRATOR: Over the years, several women had accused Trump of sexual misconduct.

And now more would come forward.

>> After the now-infamous tape came out, so have more allegations of unwanted sexual advances from incidents that allegedly happened years ago.

>> Two more women have come forward claiming he groped them, including a former contestant on Trump's reality show, "The Apprentice."

>> NARRATOR: It looked like his past was catching up to him.

>> Women accusing him of groping and sexually assaulting them over the years, at least seven of them now.

Two more women... >> NARRATOR: But he defended himself, denied the allegations of sexual misconduct, and was undeterred.

>> He had this belief, going back to his time with "The Apprentice," going back to his long years in New York, that this country, the people who could elect him president of the United States, saw things much more like he did, which is a shrug, that this is just Trump being Trump.

>> (chanting in distance): Trump!

Trump!

Trump!

>> You're all the way up on the 25th floor in Trump Tower.

You can hear, on the streets, Trump goes, "What's that?"

And you look down... >> (chanting): Trump!

Trump!

Trump!

>> There's literally this mob down there.

(whistles blowing, car horns honking) He just goes, "These are my people.

I gotta go talk to my people."

(laughing): Trump just walks out there.

>> Here he is!

Donald!

Donald!

Whoo-hoo!

>> Nothing humiliates Donald Trump.

He walked out onto the street, people cheered him, he said, "It's over, it's...

It's good."

And he was right-- people didn't care.

And his people were still there, they still followed him.

>> They say I have the most loyal people.

Did you ever see that?

Where I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, okay?

(audience laughing) It's, like, incredible.

>> From the Fifth Avenue comment to the "Access Hollywood" moment, every time people try to hold him to account, every time people try to impose consequences on him, that deepens the support that he gets from his base, because it says to the public, "This guy is taking the arrows for you, "and when he stands up for himself, he's fighting for you."

>> Donald Trump goes from being the candidate to the leader.

>> A textbook case of disruption coming to Washington.

>> NARRATOR: Donald Trump had come back from scandal once again to win the presidency.

>> He looks at the presidency as a show.

Remember, he was a host of a reality show for 14 years.

He even says that to his aides.

"Think of every day as another half-hour episode in this show.

So, how do we get attention?"

>> Now arrives the hour of action.

(crowd cheers and applauds) >> Chaos, confusion, and anger growing in the wake of President Trump's immigration ban.

>> ...stops all entry from some predominantly Muslim nations.

>> We want our country to be a sanctuary for law-abiding Americans, not criminal aliens.

>> The growing outrage over families being separated at the border... >> ...showcasing unbelievable cruelty on the part of the U.S. government.

>> We'd never had a president like that.

>> How am I doing, am I doing...

Okay, I'm president!

Hey!

I'm president!

Can you believe it, right?

>> Trump does enjoy being the center of attention.

When Trump is on the national scene, you think about him all the time because attention is his oxygen.

>> Russian collusion-- give me a break.

>> You see the same tools that he's always used to defend himself.

>> ...that you may have indictments... >> I'm not concerned about anything with the Russian investigation, because it's a hoax.

>> Are you... >> That's enough, put down the mic.

>> Mr. President, are you worried about indictments coming down... >> Which is, go on the attack, attack the investigators.

>> President Trump now facing outrage after firing Comey.

>> I did you a great favor when I fired this guy.

>> It's very much the Roy Cohn message.

Just counterpunch no matter what.

I mean, and from the start, he just, you know, he always hits as hard as he possibly can, and harder than he's been hit, if he can.

>> Jews will not replace us!

>> Mayhem in Charlottesville.

>> President Trump under fire after Charlottesville, saying that there were "very fine people on both sides."

>> NARRATOR: Controversy after controversy, Trump would come out on top.

>> I see Charlottesville as a way of using race to cement his relationship with his base.

>> I think there's blame on both sides, and I have no doubt about it, and you don't have any doubt about it, either.

>> It happens over and over again, where people say, "Oh, my gosh, this is it.

No president can survive this."

Uh, quite the opposite.

Donald Trump will prove at this moment and many others to come that nothing defeats him.

>> Dramatic end to a nearly five-month war with Democrats-- President Trump has been acquitted in his impeachment trial.

>> The impeachment is finally over.

President Trump acquitted by U.S. Senate.

>> Thank you very much, everybody, thank you.

Thank you very much, thank you.

(audience applauds and cheers) >> NARRATOR: It was a presidency marked by constant fighting: to control the Republican Party, transform the Supreme Court, avoid legal and political challenges, and win re-election.

>> By February of 2020, you're seeing Trump's popularity skyrocket.

We come into a poll, and I show him in the Oval, and he was winning in a landslide.

He had a battle map that no one had seen since Reagan.

That is February of 2020.

And I remember going home that night and seeing the pictures coming out of China and Italy and other places of COVID.

>> The growing worries and response to the deadly coronavirus.

>> Wuhan, China, that's the epicenter of this... >> Three cities now under lockdown in China.

>> And I, I started scratching my head, and I was, like, "This thing could take all of this down."

>> NARRATOR: Trump would fight COVID the Trump way.

>> He immediately turned to what he knew best, which is the rules of Trump, the way he's always done business.

So he puts himself at the center.

>> President Trump taking to the White House Briefing Room surrounded by his... >> Daily briefings.

>> We're ready for it-- it is what it is.

We're ready for it.

You have 15 people, and the 15, within a couple of days, is going to be down to close to zero.

>> What he learned in terms of coping with his parents, what he learned in New York real estate, what he learned from Roy Cohn, is, "I can manufacture and get a very large people to believe my truth."

>> We have done an incredible job, we're going to continue, it's going to disappear-- one day, it's like a miracle, it will disappear.

And we're prepared and we're doing a great job with it and it will go away, just stay calm.

And again, this is going away, this is going away.

>> But this is a crisis that his 45-, 50-year skill set, the Roy Cohn playbook, doesn't work with this crisis, because it's scientific-- it's fact-based science.

>> His reaction to COVID totally fits his playbook for all the other crises that he not only waged and waded through, but, but triumphed over.

>> Empty streets lead to packed emergency rooms across New York City.

>> It's just that this one is so undeniable.

People are dying.

>> Paralysis in this typically vibrant city in just a matter of weeks.

>> FEMA sent 85 refrigerated trucks to New York City to hold the people who've perished.

>> I knew it was really bad.

Within a few months, his polling was in the bucket.

I tried to kind of have a intervention.

My last throw-myself-onto-the-hot-coals was, "We're losing, and we're losing because of how we're handling COVID."

We were wrong on our framing of what we were doing on COVID.

The onstage presentations from Trump were being wrong.

And, "If the election's held today, we lose."

And he didn't like hearing that.

He got very upset with me.

That was the last time I ever was in the Oval Office.

>> NARRATOR: Trump once again found himself on the ropes.

>> The Fox News Decision Desk can now project that former Vice President Joe Biden will win Pennsylvania and Nevada.

>> He is President-elect Joseph Robinette Biden.

>> NARRATOR: He'd lost.

But he'd now do what he'd always done.

>> One of Donald Trump's great strengths, and also one of his great weakness, is that he lives in a reality distortion field.

Anytime he encounters a setback, he just rewrites it in a way that comports with his own need to see himself as a winner, a survivor, and he'll resort to any narrative he needs to make that tangible to himself.

>> NARRATOR: He would go on the attack.

>> I won the election.

(tweet sends) >> Trump cannot see himself through the prism of "loser," which has been an enormous boon to him his entire life, but not in that particular circumstance.

>> Most fraudulent election in history.

(tweet sends) >> This election was a total fraud.... And they did these massive dumps of votes, and all of a sudden, I went from winning by a lot to losing by a little.

>> We could see Donald Trump continuing to push the lies and misinformation in public about the election.

>> You will find tens of thousands of false ballots, fraud, forged ballots, you'll see... >> He was making videos.

>> You can press a button for Trump, and the vote goes to Biden.

What kind of a system is this?

>> But he was also literally working the phones.

>> Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers described at least two phone calls from the former president... >> Pressuring state election officials in Arizona.

>> In a series of calls after the election, Trump demanded Bowers throw out the electoral votes won by Joe Biden.

>> And Georgia.

>> I just want to find 11,780 votes.

Fellas, I need 11,000 votes-- give me a break.

>> He didn't care if he polluted the foundations of American democracy and brought down long-standing civic and civil norms about the transfer of power.

Those things didn't comport with his understanding of who he was and how he wanted the world to perceive him, so he developed a different story.

>> NARRATOR: Trump kept pushing his story no matter what happened.

>> In the courts, where evidence gets scrutinized, authenticated, and tested, they're getting hammered.

>> NARRATOR: More than 60 lawsuits were unsuccessful in court.

>> ...all but now ending the president's attempt to reverse his election loss.

>> NARRATOR: Many of his senior staff told him the claims had no merit-- including his handpicked attorney general.

>> He was told, time and time again, that he did not win the election.

Not by Democrats, not by the media, but by his own people.

NARRATOR: Unwilling to accept defeat, Trump made one final attempt.

>> People told him, "You're going to have a second bite of the apple on January 6."

That was a date by which the Congress is going to vote to certify what the state electors did.

>> Donald Trump issued a tweet saying, "All of my supporters, come to Washington for this rally on January 6."

>> Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 election.

Big protest in D.C. on January 6-- be there, will be wild!

(tweet sends) >> "Will be wild."

He wanted a show of force to come to Washington and to try to block the certification of Congress.

>> (chanting): Fight for Trump!

Fight for Trump!

>> And we fight, we fight like hell, and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.

>> He wanted, in whatever way he could, to empower people to disrupt Congress.

>> (chanting): Fight for Trump!

Fight for Trump!

>> And if that resulted in violence, he obviously was prepared to let that happen.

>> (chanting): Fight for Trump!

Fight for Trump!

(chanting): Hang Mike Pence!

Hang Mike Pence!

>> He watches people sacking the U.S. Capitol, overrunning police, beating them with the American flag.

To just sit there and watch it on television... (stammers): Just inexplicable.

(people shouting) >> NARRATOR: Eventually, police regained control of the Capitol.

>> The Capitol grounds have been secure.

Police had to use tear gas... >> Troops are deployed around the Capitol perimeter to prevent any more violence.

>> NARRATOR: Donald Trump's election loss would stand.

It was over-- for now.

>> I, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., do solemnly swear... >> NARRATOR: Refusing to attend Biden's inauguration, he left Washington on Air Force One.

>> Congratulations, Mr. President.

>> There's a certain Napoleon element to Donald Trump's evacuation from Washington to his private club in Palm Beach.

It's almost like he's returning to nurse his wounds and continue to live in that alternate reality.

>> After January 6, and what happened on the Capitol that day, it was universally terrible.

There wasn't even the most ardent Trump fan defending it.

It was an onslaught of negative coverage, understandably.

And it went on for months-- months and months and months.

To the point where he had been entirely ruled out.

There was only a question about whether he might face criminal charges.

>> A large group of FBI agents executing an unannounced raid on President Trump's home at Mar-a-Lago.

>> The Justice Department has been investigating the removal of classified records that were taken from the White House to Mar-a-Lago.

>> He lost multiple civil trials.

>> Trump was found liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll.

>> They found him liable for sexual abuse, business fraud, his business was convicted in criminal court of tax and other financial crimes.

>> A federal grand jury here has indicted former President Donald Trump on four counts... >> Indictment after indictment after indictment.

>> Charged with leading a criminal organization that worked to overturn the results... (camera shutter clicks) >> The day you're being arraigned and fingerprinted and mugshotted, for most people, that's a bad day.

But for Donald Trump, it was an opportunity.

>> I just want to thank you for your tremendous support, and here it is.

If you want to go out and get it, you can go out and get it.

Have fun with it.

But people do like it, I must say.

Thank you very much.

>> (laughing) >> Never surrender!

Whoo!

>> NARRATOR: Donald Trump's next comeback was under way.

>> What would have destroyed any other politician's career seemed to only strengthen him and embolden him.

Rather than being tarnished, he turned the tables on his adversaries and made it out to be a political plus.

And instead of a discredited, shamed loser, he becomes the apostle of the comeback.

>> Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxists, Communists, and fascists indict me, I consider it a great badge of honor.

>> Trying to go after one's political opponent with criminal charges, trying to put him in jail, was a bridge too far.

(crowd chanting) As the cases started rolling on, the anger on the right and the middle, which is where most of my audience is, grew.

And I saw it in my emails, in my comments, in the feedback I got from my audience.

>> ...Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.

>> This was a rigged, disgraceful trial.

The real verdict is going to be November 5 by the people.

>> His supporters that stay with him, they just know that that's not the America that they want their children to grow up in.

That a government that is so weaponized against a former president, at some point, it's gone too far.

>> All of these raids, all of these prosecutions, only fed his presentation of himself as a victim, as a martyr, as someone who is there to take these bullets on behalf of Americans.

(crowd cheering) >> President Trump officially clinching the Republican nomination for president... >> Donald Trump securing the Republican nomination in commanding fashion... ♪ ♪ >> NARRATOR: Then a defining moment in his comeback.

>> ...if you want to really see something that's sad, take a look at what happened... (gun firing) >> Get down, get down, get down, get down, get down!

(guns firing, people screaming) >> You never know when you're in combat and shot at, or shot, how you will react.

(gun fires, people screaming) The strength of your character and the fight within you is tested in moments like that.

(crowd murmuring) (crowd cheering) >> To watch that man stand up, raise his fist and look at the crowd, and yell, "Fight!

Fight!

Fight!"...

(crowd cheering and applauding) He was so defiant in that moment, I think a lot of people woke up to the fact that Donald Trump, um, isn't just here to stay, but he's here to fight on their behalf.

In that moment, I said, "He just won the election."

>> (chanting): U.S.A.!

U.S.A.!

(chanting): Fight!

Fight!

(chant continues) (chant continues) >> No matter what obstacle comes our way, we will not break, we will not bend, we will not back down, and I will never stop fighting for you, your family, and our magnificent country.

Never.

(crowd cheering and applauding) >> (chanting): We love Trump!

We love Trump!

>> NARRATOR: He had been shot at.

Indicted.

Convicted.

And had to face a new historic opponent.

>> (chanting): Kamala!

Kamala!

>> All eyes are now on Vice President Kamala Harris.

>> Polls in the presidential race are tightening, as Democrats... >> ...now Kamala Harris 49, Trump 44 nationally in our new poll... >> NARRATOR: Armed with grievances, he promised to get even.

>> November 5 will be your liberation day.

November 5... with your vote this election, their lying, cheating, thieving, hoaxing, and plotting will come to an end-- it's gonna come to an end.

(crowd cheers and applauds) >> His second presidential campaign was a revenge tour.

I think he's angry at law enforcement for trying to corral him.

He's angry at the media for trying to tell the truth about him.

He's angry at Democrats running against him.

He's mad at life for not seeing Donald Trump the way that Donald Trump sees himself.

And he is going to want to exact a certain amount of vengeance on all of those camps.

>> NARRATOR: As the election approached, Trump rallied more and more supporters to his fight.

>> That group, like, "tear it down, the system doesn't work for me," is now no longer the more working-class voters who have been left behind by industrialization and so on.

Now it's young people, under the age of 30, who can't get a mortgage, or feel like they can get married and have a kid because inflation's so high, they can't go to the grocery store anymore.

>> There were a lot of people that didn't like his personality, didn't like his tweets, just weren't sure that they wanted another four years, that ultimately went into the ballot box and voted for Donald Trump because of the strength, because of the fight, because they knew that at the end of the day, he would do right by them.

(crowd cheering and applauding) >> NARRATOR: It was the ultimate comeback.

>> A stunning political comeback.

Former President Trump once again becomes President-elect Trump.

>> State by state, President-elect Trump is on track to win every single swing state... >> President Trump surprised across the country, across every demographic group... >> We've achieved the most incredible political thing... Look what happened-- is this crazy?

(crowd cheers and applauds) >> This is a defeated president recapturing the White House four years after a pandemic that killed hundreds of thousands on his watch, after an election that he tried to overturn, after two impeachments, four indictments, 34 felony crimes.

>> Trump won the presidency and a get-out-of-jail-free card.

>> He has now been gifted legal immunity.

>> After winning an election, the federal cases all go away.

>> In his hush money case, unconditional discharge covering all 34 counts-- no prison time, no fine.

>> Whether you like Donald Trump or don't like Donald Trump, you have to be struck by his ability to come back from this.

For those who thought he might just be an aberration in American history, a fluke who won in 2016, he's proved them wrong.

(crowd chanting "U.S.A.!

U.S.A.!")

>> NARRATOR: Go to pbs.org/frontline to see extended interviews as part of our latest transparency project.

>> Two impeachments, four indictments... >> A government that is so weaponized that against a former President... >> But for Donald Trump, it was an opportunity.

In that moment, I said, “He just won the election."

>> NARRATOR: And see all our political coverage.

Connect with FRONTLINE on Facebook, Instagram, and X, and stream anytime on the PBS app, YouTube, and pbs.org/frontline.

Captioned by Media Access Group at WGBH access.wgbh.org >> For more on this and other "FRONTLINE" programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline.

♪ ♪ FRONTLINE's "Trump's Comeback" is available on Amazon Prime Video.

♪ ♪