A decade of MAGA: How Trump’s golden escalator ride changed America By

Ten years ago, then-businessman Donald Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, slowly descended a golden escalator at his Trump Tower in New York City, waving at the crowd that had gathered to hear his remarks. 

Nearby, Ivanka Trump, his first daughter, stood awaiting her father’s announcement that he was running for president during the 2016 election cycle with a slogan: Make America Great Again.

Nearly all the political chattering class laughed off the stunt as just part of Trump’s attention-seeking appeal over the past decades. 

It was instead the beginning of one of the most transformative political movements that revamped American politics.

In the 10 years since now-President Donald Trump descended the golden escalator, a novel political intrigue candidate, he has irrevocably changed the Republican Party and the country’s politics with his unconventional approach to campaigning and governing, in addition to his blend of social conservatism and fiscal populism.