As a lame duck, Trump suffers his first veto override. He now goes out of office losing a battle he didn't have to fight, but foolishly chose to simply because the bill didn't contain an unrelated measure related to his ego (social media regulation) and didn't cater to confederate sympathizers.
The strategic foolishness of this is a demonstration of how Trump has never been clever. His only technique has been his ability to mobilize his cult following, intimidating Republican politicians into going along because they were scared of constituents who like Trump far more than they liked their own senators and representatives.
But as a lame duck, that power is gone. It exists vestigially in Georgia, where the Republican senatorial candidates, still trying to turn out Trump-supporting Republican voters, are still boasting of their fealty to Trump.
But Trump's power is largely dead in Congress, where all of the current members are either leaving tomorrow or have a minimum of two years until re-election: two years in which to set themselves against a Democratic administration to satisfy their constituents. It's dead in the Senate, where majority leader McConnell will be starting a new 6 year term before he has to face constituents for re-election (if, at age 84 then, he even wants to). No wonder McConnell played an obvious game to block the $2,000 relief/stimulus checks Trump (and the Democratic progressives) wanted.
Trump is a beaten man, whom history will remember as the most sore, most anti-democratic, presidential loser ever. He had raised hundreds of millions in a grifting scheme to supposedly fight alleged election fraud, which he'll use for his own purposes. But that's not what he really wants. His influence is largely over and will continue to wain, but that's not what he really wants, either.
What he wants is adoring attention. It's necessary that the election have been stolen from him, because losers don't get adoring attention, while victims often can.
I suspect the adoring attention will wain, too. Much of the adoration has been specifically attached to Trump's perceived ability to represent the populist and religious right's grievances. Absent his ability to influence policy, they may still like him, but they won't pay adoring attention to him.
Will he try a radio show to keep their attention? Maybe, but he won't keep it up long. Talking into a microphone in a studio doesn't provide the feedback of a laughing, chanting, yelling crowd.
He's over. He's done. He's just going to try to stretch out the post-game interviews as long as possible.
