Trump is building his power at home while global leaders dread his return

CNN —

Donald Trump has won only one 2024 Republican nominating contest. So far. But the ex-president’s political power is growing by the day, propelled by his dominance in national primary polling and the dawning sense that he might be the all-but-inevitable nominee following his resounding win in the Iowa caucuses.

Trump has invigorated an initially lackluster White House bid by leveraging his multiple criminal indictments to create a narrative of political persecution.

His influence is again dictating terms in Washington, where GOP lawmakers dance to his tune on issues like government funding, Ukraine and immigration, and craft legislative positions to boost his campaign.

Former President Donald Trump during a campaign event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Wednesday, January 17.

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On the trail, Trump’s remaining primary opponents, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, are gingerly stepping up attacks on him, but they’re pulling their strongest punches over January 6, 2021, and his threat to democracy to avoid angering his supporters. Haley has the best chance to defeat him in an early state when New Hampshire holds its primary on Tuesday, but its electorate isn’t representative of much of the rest of the nominating contests.

And there was a Trump-shaped cloud over the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, as European leaders fretted that their nightmare of a Trump 2.0 may be coming true. Business titans were beginning to process the possibility that in one year and a day, a president who shook up the world could be back in the Oval Office. Kevin Roberts – the president of the