Much was said following the election about the probability of Trump—the buffoon, the vulgarian, the racist—becoming “presidential.” The word certainly meant different things to different speakers, but the shared underlying assumption was that as president, Trump should develop some reverence for the office he would now hold, and for the system at the pinnacle of which the electoral college had placed him. This assumption—this misplaced hope—ran counter to the essence of the Trumpian project.
