But Bannon, who had befriended Giuliani (whom he had previously and publicly described as drunken and senile), became in the hours after the election a fervent believer in the stolen vote and in the wilder versions of how it had happened. Bannon’s podcast, focused on an audience of one, but with a large actual audience, too, became a platform for almost every one of the outliers who had gathered around the election challenge.

The president, who had not spoken to his former chief strategist since shortly after Bannon left the White House in August 2017, was now back on the phone with him, taking strategic advice.

There was perhaps some logic here, at least from Bannon’s point of view. Bannon was one of the original authors of Trump populism. While personally ridiculing the world of conspiracies, he nevertheless prided himself on being able to propagate the kind of narrative that, by its very labyrinthine qualities, draws in an engaged and credulous audience. Elections, with their thousands of unknown hands, far-flung control, opaque counting, and with the close margins in swing states, were an obvious new gold standard of conspiracy—one that Trump, more than anyone, now believed in.

But the pure nature of Bannon’s opportunism was also an important window, one that Trump insiders stood at, aghast. Bannon’s self-interest had been an overriding theme since his first involvement with Trump. Trump, as an outlier largely without any insider support, was a vehicle for other outliers. Bannon, hungry and ambitious, had largely failed to go beyond the periphery of any of the worlds he had tried to enter (finance, entertainment, media, and politics). Trump, no matter his flaws—and Bannon was among the most clear-eyed, and certainly the most vocal about them—was, and Bannon repeated this as his constant rationalization, a “vehicle.” He was a television star who was himself so opportunistic that he was willing to do anything to be an even bigger star. The difficulty here was that Trump was … Trump. And the degree to which you tried to use him, for good or bad purposes or for anything other than Trump’s own purposes, was the degree to which he resented you.

But the election challenge was a clean slate. All the outsiders who now joined up immediately became the new Trump insiders.

Giuliani, ever blocked by the insiders, had a route back; Ellis, never taken seriously by the insiders, had her sudden chance to be on television all the time. And Bannon, most naked in his desires, needed a pardon. All that was required was that you indulged Trump in his fantasy. Bannon could certainly rationalize that there was a limited downside: the effort would come to a natural end; democracy would not collapse; Trump would not get a second term; and yet all the game players would be left with some elevated standing in right-wing media circles. And, in addition, Bannon might well receive a pardon.