Donald Trump has three options right now.
He could do what most former presidents do: fade quietly into the background; offer words of support and quiet encouragement when required; ponder his legacy; write and reflect; and enjoy his role as an elder statesman who no longer has to worry about elections, campaigns, or endless negotiations and meetings. But he won't be doing that.
Alternatively, he could hide himself away in some sort of bide-a-wee seclusion, wrapped in the comforting blanket of delusion and ignoring calls from Copernicus reminding him he is no longer the centre of the universe. Like the political equivalent of Miss Havisham: jilted at the altar, never removing the wedding dress, all the clocks stopped in her decaying mansion and the wedding breakfast and cake forever uneaten.
Or maybe Charles Foster Kane, a recluse in Xanadu, estranged from friends and family and without input to or influence over politics. Or even Norma Desmond, alone in her rattlingly-enormous Sunset Boulevard home, watching endless re-runs of her box-office triumphs, dreaming of a return to the former glories of de Mille and close-ups, and insisting, "I am big. It's the pictures that got small."
But no, he won't be doing that, either.
Or - and this seems the most likely option - he can just shift back to Mar-a-Lago, rename it the Real White House and carry on as if Joe Biden didn't exist. He'll spend a fortune - gathered by the Proud Boys at neo-confederacy rallies - recreating the Oval Office in minute detail and require everyone to continue to treat him as though he really were the president. He'll invite every exiled political nutter or autocrat he can think of and arrange summits where they can all pretend to be standing up for the rights of 'ordinary people' around the world.
He'll build his Presidential Library nearby to house the printed-out version of every tweet he has ever sent; every video of every rally he has addressed; every photo of every celebrity or leader who stood beside him at official photo-ops; every MAGA hat he wore during campaigns; and every glowing testimonial from some lackey or funder he has met along the way.
The library will be unique in one particular respect: it will have a rogues' gallery devoted to everyone who has ever betrayed, slighted, abandoned, insulted or bested him. They will be blamed for any perceived failure or broken pledge while he was president. Trump can never admit to his own failings, so they must always be dismissed as fake news or attributed to the actions, stupidity or treachery of others. That section of the library is likely to be the largest.
Beside the library will be the studio for his new TV channel, Trump Truth, a 24-hour dissection of why Biden is wrong on everything and president in name only. It will also be the home for his new reality TV show, I Want To Be President: in which contestants will compete to earn his endorsement and voter base for the 2024 election (unless, of course, he decides they are all LOSERS and he is the only one who can win).
Both the library and studio will be contained within a huge shopping mall in which worshippers at the shrine of the Undefeated President will be able to buy anything they like from his Crap-Is-Us franchise. Trump doesn't do reality or humility: although he does do revenge, especially if others are prepared to foot the bill.
But how will he be remembered? Primarily for those few hours on January 6, when some of his followers rioted as a consequence of his petulance and he finally revealed himself as a moral/political coward. That revelation (it was, fittingly, the Feast of Epiphany) will determine the judgment on his entire presidency and maybe even his entire life. It's the yardstick by which he will be measured.
The only president - so far - to seek to overturn an election result because he wasn't prepared to accept he had lost. The president who supplied the petrol, lit the match and then skulked in the Oval Office for a few hours while the Capitol was under siege and elected members and their staff had to be ushered to safety. The president who ensured 9/11 was replaced by 6/21 as the greatest single threat to US democracy.
A man for whom there should be no redemption or rehabilitation because, to the serial disgrace and dishonour he had already brought to the Oval Office, he added the ultimate political/constitutional sin of treachery.
He now has a swamp all to himself.
