But when the impeachment poll came back, it confirmed his inexplicable but overwhelming support in the party. Virtually no Republican wanted him impeached; nobody even held him responsible. The party—whoever the party was, out there somewhere—had hardly even had a hiccup in its awe and devotion. There was almost a palpable shift back. Republicans in Washington had been indulging a sense of a new political elasticity, a new free-floating change in the political ether, a Prague Spring—when in fact, delivered with a rude slap and abrupt comeuppance, there’d been no change at all. It was still a Trump world.

It was not for the first time that a Trump poll was almost magically at odds with events, or at least with the way the media portrayed events. The moral forces of rectitude and conventionality that had seemed to surround and condemn the president since January 6 were, at the very least, held in check by the countervailing righteousness of the president’s broad piece of the electorate, who indeed believed the election had been stolen from him.

Mitch was not going to move against the president. The poll showed, once again, how laughably out of touch McConnell was with his own party and the nation—or, at least, half the nation.

The president, previously subdued, went back to his litany of election abuses—quite as though it were a fresh, new idea.

Kushner had started trying to put a meeting on the calendar since early in December: the post-presidency organization and agenda meeting. That had been difficult because there was not yet going to be a post-presidency, and it was impermissible to suggest as much. The meeting had been scheduled again just before Christmas and put off once more.

After January 6, Jared put it on again. Now it was disciplinary—there would be a post-presidency, and it was almost here. It was also what Jared called, in his repeated efforts to impose a sense of businesslike procedures—or, as some accused him, business-advice-book procedures—“landing the plane.”

Something else was also suspected: Jared needed a plan in place around the president—soon-to-be-former president—lest the post-presidency fall on him. Filling his father-in-law’s days, setting up his office, being the point man for … well, for what was unclear.

In some sense, a deplatformed former president with literally nothing to do and no way to express himself was more alarming for those close to him than a fully disruptive former president. What was Trump if he was not able to be Trump, and who would take on that burden?

The Kushner family was going to move to Florida; it was clear that exile from New York was going to be required. But Jared and Ivanka were going out of their way not to be too close to Palm Beach and the president (the soon-to-be former president).

Trump needed to be able to call someone.