But this was all, really, just wishfulness on Trump’s part, a failure of the media to read the larger room, and a willful effort by family and staff to believe in some possible normalcy. The greater truth here was that he wasn’t wanted. His absence was no longer seen as a snub but as a godsend. Nobody, no Democrats, no Republicans, believed he could have gone and stood there with the new president without visibly and noisomely expressing himself—indeed, without claiming unwarranted attention for himself. His attendance would not have accorded more legitimacy to Biden, but it would, at this point, have accorded more legitimacy to himself—and no one, no Democrats certainly, but include here quite a few Republicans, wanted that.

In historic terms, his not attending his successor’s inauguration should more properly be seen as his being the first sitting president not invited.

The vice president, in another offense to the president, announced he was going. That, the president decided, was more of Marc Short’s doing. He blamed Marc Short for the vice president’s betrayal in the electoral count. And now, egged on by Peter Navarro, he banned Short from the White House—literally barring him from the premises (not that Short, like so many others, necessarily wanted to come back in).

Those in the West Wing who hadn’t yet escaped, compelled by loyalty or entropy, started to drift back in quotidian fashion on the eighth.

There was now an elephant in the room, with little or no possibility of discussing of what had happened two days before. Partly, this was simply from long practice. Trump events, Trump explosions, happened and then passed. (The world might find itself with a collective exploding head, but inside Trumpworld, moving on and doing so quickly was what you did—there was always something next.) And partly, there was the sense that, different this time, the humiliation, different from other humiliations, was simply too great to address.

Kushner called a meeting in his office to schedule the remaining days—they had a week and a half left. Again, this was seen as part of his weird pretense that, despite everything, he lived in a normal world. Hence, let’s take a valedictory moment. Or, it was see-no-evil, hear-no-evil Jared, a militant compartmentalization.

The formal, if futile, point was to underline the administration’s accomplishments—here was their legacy. China, the border, the American worker, prison reform, Middle East peace … They ought to come up with events and photo opportunities to memorialize these signature efforts and achievements. At the same time, the small group acknowledged the remote likelihood that Trump would want to do any of this.

In fact, though, he was suddenly interested—or, finding himself, perhaps for the first time in four years, in an empty Oval Office, was merely looking for company. He sent Molly Michael down to Jared’s office to move the meeting to the Oval Office.