The stage and podium prior to the start of a Donald Trump news conference at his private club, Mar-a-Lago, on the eve of his Super Tuesday primary victories, in Palm Beach.
Donald Trump's dominant performance Tuesday erased all doubt - if any remained - that he is in a strong position to be the Republican presidential nominee, a prospect that less than a year ago seemed inconceivable.
The political world has gone through stages of disbelief about his candidacy since he announced it in June: dismissing it at first, then acknowledging his strength and finally accepting that he could win the nomination.
As political reporters, we have come to realize the power and tenacity of Trump's campaign at a different pace, and some of us can pinpoint the moment it all came into focus. These are some of our recollections:
It was Nov. 7, 2015. I was at a Thai restaurant in Manhattan with my wife, who is a political reporter, and two friends. I was alone in predicting that someone other than Trump would end up as the nominee. These weren't casual news consumers: They were among the smartest and the most politically perceptive people I know. As I argued for another candidate's chances, I found my own case less and less convincing. A Trump nomination still seemed far-fetched, but doubt sank in: Was I the one missing the bigger picture of 2016?
- ALEXANDER BURNSI first saw Trump in person last summer in Iowa, when he questioned Sen. John McCain's status as a war hero. At that point, I thought he was finished. I interviewed him a couple of times on the telephone, and while I was impressed by his enthusiasm, I still thought a more traditional candidate would eventually emerge. It was not until I attended one of his raucous rallies in Iowa in early January that I believed he was for real. While many people continued to underestimate him, Trump's supporters were incredibly passionate about their candidate.
- ALAN RAPPEPORTI started 2016 covering Jeb Bush - the man with the $100 million war chest, the famous last name, the family connections, the stellar conservative résumé and the serious policy proposals. And I watched him hobbled by one single insult, just two devastating words: "low energy." When voters started repeating Trump's insult back to me, without quite realizing they were parroting him, that's when I knew.
- ASHLEY PARKERIt hit me in September at a basketball arena in Dallas, among 15,000 people. The gratuitous shots at Jeb Bush (from the stage and beyond), the insistence from Trump that he was the victim of a wide-scale, poll-number rounding conspiracy. A radio station brought a Trump piñata, which attendees were invited to whack or hug. There was a brief, possibly ironic chant of "Trump up the jam!" I met a voter who had driven from Tennessee, hauling a trove of Trump hats, visors and buttons. The man was an entrepreneur, he told me. Just like Trump.
- MATT FLEGENHEIMERI didn't fully think that Trump could be the nominee until September, when I wrote up the results of a New York Times/CBS News poll. Among all the survey data, one finding jumped out: 39 percent of Republican voters thought Trump was their best shot at winning the presidency, up from 26 percent a month earlier. Some readers shrugged off that sharp increase, but I thought it reflected that enthusiasm among voters who badly wanted to beat Hillary Clinton and elect a president who did not talk, act or seemingly think like a politician.
- PATRICK HEALYI was at Trump's trip to the Mexican border early in his campaign and then covered some of his raucous, arena-packing rallies across the country. But it wasn't until his Nevada victory party, kicked off earlier than expected with a near-immediate projected victory, that I fully realized the exceptional power and sway Trump held: Nearly every one of the 15 or so voters I chatted with was a first-time caucusgoer.
- NICK CORASANITIThere were two moments for me when it became clear. One was when his poll numbers, which had started to falter after he questioned whether the voters of Iowa were stupid for believing Ben Carson's personal story, went back up after the Paris terrorist attacks. Then it was when his polling numbers held after he called for a ban on Muslim immigrants coming into the country in the wake of the San Bernardino, California, attacks. Trump has made one mistake after another - at least, what would seem to be mistakes for any other candidate - and he has retained his support.
- MAGGIE HABERMANIt was a one-two punch for me, and it came the day after the first Republican debate in August. Trump tangled with the Fox News moderators at the forum and a day later suggested that Megyn Kelly had targeted him unfairly, in comments that many interpreted as a reference to her menstrual cycle. So here he was in a scrap with the dominant institution in Republican politics, lobbing deeply personal insults, and it appeared to have no lasting impact on his support. I can't say I knew then that he was destined to be the nominee, but it was evident in the aftermath of that episode that he had a coat of Teflon that was going to make him formidable.
- JONATHAN MARTIN(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)