Four years have passed since Donald Trump pulled off one of the greatest upsets in the history of American politics when he defeated Hillary Clinton to become the 45th President of the United States. And now, only hours remain for voting to end in the 2020 US Presidential Elections and for counting of the votes to begin. A lot has changed since then but a lot remains the same.

Truth be told, the obstacles that Donald Trump has to overcome in 2020 are the same that he defeated in 2016. It is only that there is much better coordination among his rivals now, operating with laser focus to oust him from the White House. Furthermore, certain quarters which had struggled hard to maintain the charade of neutrality are now openly hostile to the prospect of another four years of his Presidency.

Thus, as it was in 2016, Donald Trump is once again up against the nexus between the Democrat party and mainstream media. In addition, almost the entirety of the entertainment industry and Big Business is lined up against him as well. Then there are the Universities which have been working over time to spread garbage propaganda against the US President. But this time, there are two added components into the mix.

The ‘Intelligence Community’, prominent sections of which attempted to enforce a coup of the democratically elected president of the USA, are openly hostile to Donald Trump now. And then there is Big Tech which has long since abandoned even the pretense of neutrality. Twitter, Facebook and Google are all censoring pro-Trump voices with varying degrees. Twitter has gone to the extent of censoring the US President for promising to enforce law and order in the wake of violent riots by left-wing thugs.

Thus, the essential nature of the alliance of the forces arraigned against him have not changed. However, the intensity with which they have been functioning is several times higher than what was witnessed in 2016. Another similarity is the polls which have been regularly predicting a terrible loss for Donald Trump in 2020.

But the polls ought to be taken with a pinch of salt as the overwhelming majority of them were horribly off target in 2016. Multiple news networks believed Hillary Clinton had more than 90% chance of winning the elections with some rating her chances as high as 98%. But eventually, when votes were counted, the Business tycoon pulled off what was unthinkable even hours earlier.

This time, however, things are slightly different with respect to polls. The polls have consistently showed a definitive edge for Joe Biden, a much bigger and more stable lead than they showed for Hillary Clinton. Therefore, if it were even possible, polls demonstrate an even worse scenario for Donald Trump than they did the last time around.

Thus, things as they stand today in terms of his chances of victory are quite similar to how they were in 2016. Almost every establishment figure, excluding Republicans, are convinced that Joe Biden is headed for a landslide victory. The mainstream media and Democrats would have citizens convinced that there is no chance in hell for Donald Trump to repeat his feat for a second time.

Even so, there are voices outside the halls of the left-leaning political elite which believe that Donald Trump will comfortably win the elections. They do not have any solid data to back their claim nor can they base their opinion on a sound basis of fact. But a lot of them are the same people who had correctly predicted the results of the 2016 elections as well based on enthusiasm among voters.

They are relying on their gut feeling that Donald Trump will pull off a massive upset yet again. Donald Trump, meanwhile, appears far more relaxed and comfortable than he did four years ago. It was widely reported, and this journalist is inclined to believe them, that the ‘MadMan-in-Chief’ was himself resigned to the fact that he would lose. But this time around, he can be spotted dancing at his rallies. And one thing that hasn’t changed even now is the massive crowds he continues to attract to his rallies.

It has to be considered, however, that these lone voices on the internet are not the only ones predicting a Trump victory. According to a Gallup poll, 56% of Americans believe Trump will win the elections. All these things considered, things are a lot different now than they were four years ago. In 2016, there was not the looming threat of a civil war across the country. Businesses were not boarded up in anticipation of riots. Months of rioting had not preceded the polling either. Therefore, the atmosphere is much darker now as clouds of uncertainty continues to gather across the horizon.

What has been happening in the United States is much like the movie Parasite, winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture, that gets progressively darker as the story progresses. Turns out, running conspiracy theories such as the Russian Collusion Delusion and comparing a democratically elected president to Adolf Hitler has debilitating effects on the mental health of citizens. As Michael Tracey, who happens to be a progressive himself who is opposed to Donald Trump, correctly pointed out, a Trump defeat is a “win for the lunatics who’ve spent four years subjecting the rest of us an unceasing tsunami of freakish nonsense.”

Furthermore, we have the Wuhan Coronavirus crisis that has thrown the entire world into chaos, the USA being no different. Until the advent of the pandemic, with a booming economy, every poll showed Donald Trump was set to win reelection comfortably. But then, the manner in which the pandemic struck the United States threw all equations into a flux. Trump himself floundered quite a bit in responding to the crisis, like all other heads of state, and that has put his position in extreme jeopardy, making him the underdog.

Then again, Donald Trump is at his best when he is running as the underdog. The greatest difference from 2016, however, is the personal characteristics of his opponent. Everyone will agree, regardless of their political orientation, that Hillary Clinton was a horrible candidate by any measure. And Joe Biden, simply, does not give those evil vibes even though he may be just as corrupt as the Hunted Biden emails reveal.

Case in point, prior to the 2016 Presidential Elections, there was the Pizzagate scandal that created a storm where it was alleged that powerful individuals in the establishment were involved in human trafficking and pedophilia. Links of Hillary Clinton to the whole affair was also suspected as Bill Clinton is infamous for his dalliances. Then, there was the ‘Clinton body count’ which documented people close to Hillary who tended to end up dead in mysterious circumstances.

There was no hard evidence to link Hillary Clinton to any of these incidents but she was herself so corrupt and her husband was so evil that people considered well under the realm of possibilities that they would be involved in such crimes. We were told that Pizzagate was a hoax but then the same people would have us believe that noted pedophile Jeffery Epstein, with deep links to the US political establishment, actually committed suicide. But as we all know, Epstein did not kill himself.

Joe Biden is simply not such a person. He may be a geriatric with early onset dementia who cannot always identify his wife from his sister and often, he does not even know which state he is in, but people would have a hard time convincing others that he is involved in the creepy and evil stuff that they suspected Hillary’s involvement in. Joe Biden himself has a habit of behaving inappropriate around women and minor girls but even so, he emanates the vibes of the neighbourhood grandpa who is far past his sell-by date.

Joe biden may be a fool and a clown but people have a hard time believing that he is evil, which is not the case with Hillary Clinton. And that makes Donald Trump’s job much more difficult. That is perhaps the reason why the Trump Campaign has focused so much on Kamala Harris, who gives off the same vibes as Hillary Clinton and is a certifiable sociopath, and the fact that Joe Biden may be too weak to stamp his authority over the radical left section of the Democrat voter-base.

Thus, the 2020 US presidential elections has the same dynamics as 2016 but the atmosphere is much darker, the stakes are much higher and Donald Trump has a much higher mountain to climb. Could he do it? If there was ever someone who could, then it is Donald J Trump.