Trump Hopes to Do What Only One Man Has Done

If things go the way Donald Trump hopes, he'll enter the history books as just the second US president to ever serve nonconsecutive terms. The sole name on the list right now is that of Grover Cleveland, who occupied the White House from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897 as the 22nd and 24th president. NPR revisits Cleveland's double paths to the presidency: He served as the mayor of Buffalo and New York governor before becoming the first Democrat to be elected to the presidency post-Civil War. His first term saw the Haymarket Riot of 1886 in Chicago and the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887, which regulated the railroad industry (and marked the first industry to be subject to federal regulation).

He also vetoed private pension bills for Civil War veterans, then ended up losing to one such veteran: Benjamin Harrison, grandson of former President William Henry Harrison. Cleveland did win the popular vote 48.6% to 47.9%, but Harrison easily won the Electoral College, 233 to 168, per History.com. NPR flags this assessment from historian Troy Senik: Cleveland "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."

As for his return, historian Barbara Perry tells History.com that Cleveland "enjoyed private life but continued to oppose the Republicans' tariffs and monetary policy. He began to speak about disquiet in the country, especially over how GOP tariffs raised the cost of living. Democrats happily turned to the former president for the 1892 presidential nomination." The modern primary system was not yet in place, which eased Cleveland's path to a third nomination. This time, he won both the popular vote and the Electoral College, and tariffs ended up being a deciding factor, says Senik: "Republicans had enacted significant tariff increases during the Harrison administration, the costs were felt by voters, and Cleveland's previously quixotic support of tariff reductions found a new purchase." (More Election 2024 stories.)