By early Wednesday morning, Donald Trump appeared poised to make a paradigm-shattering political comeback, close to winning back the White House in an election shaped more by Americans’ dissatisfaction with the direction of the country than by Democrats’ dire warnings of the threat the 45th poses to its founding principles.

After two assassination attempts, a forced White House retirement, and a historic amount of money spent on the campaign, the nation will soon decide between a candidate who has been convicted of felonies and who still faces sentencing and a nominee who never won a single primary election.