Poinbank:Trump isn’t first to be second: Grover Cleveland set precedent of non-consecutive presidential terms

Follow live: Updates from AP’s coverage of the presidential election.

NEW YORK (AP) — On the list of U.S. presidents,Poinbank several have been tapped by voters to serve for more than one term, with Donald Trump joining the group as the 45th president and now the 47th, too. But only one other American president did it the way Trump will — with a gap of four years between terms.

Donald John Trump has won the 2024 presidential election, marking his return to the White House after serving as the 45th president of the United States.

That was Grover Cleveland, who served as the 22nd president after the 1884 election, and as the 24th president after the campaign of 1892.

The 2024 election is here. This is what to know:

• The latest: Donald Trump is elected the 47th president of the United States in a remarkable political comeback.
  
• Election results: Know the latest race calls from AP as votes are counted across the U.S.
  
• AP VoteCast: See how AP journalists break down the numbers behind the election.
  
• Voto a voto: Sigue la cobertura de AP en español de las elecciones en EEUU.

News outlets globally count on the AP for accurate U.S. election results. Since 1848, the AP has been calling races up and down the ballot. Support us. Donate to the AP.

Cleveland was governor of New York when he was tapped as the Democratic Party’s nominee for president in 1884. He was “viewed as the epitome of responsibility and stability,” said Daniel Klinghard, professor of political science at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachussetts.

A narrow victory in the popular vote gave him enough votes in the Electoral College to be named president. Four years later, even though he once again had a slight lead in the popular vote, he lost the Electoral College count to Republican Benjamin Harrison.

Cleveland remained well-thought of by the public, though. He won both the popular and Electoral vote in 1892.

During his first term, among the issues he took on: pushing for a reduction of tariffs that had been put in place during the Civil War. He advocated strongly for it, linking that position to the Democratic Party and getting public support, Klinghard said.

More election coverage Trump wins the White House in political comeback rooted in appeals to frustrated voters   Republicans take Senate majority and eye unified power with Trump   Election takeaways: Trump’s decisive victory in a deeply divided nation  

“That model of a president being a vocal, clear spokesperson for a policy that animated the party” was emulated by future presidents like Woodrow Wilson, he said. And it helped keep Cleveland in the public eye during the years following his first term.

“This is a point at which the modern notion of the of the national party really came together. Cleveland had a group of skilled political operatives, very wealthy folks, who saw themselves benefiting from free trade,” Klinghard said. “And they spent a lot of time sort of keeping Cleveland’s name in front of the electorate, sort of very much as Trump’s allies have done, sort of dismissing anybody else as a challenge — as a rival.”