Well, here we go again.
On Monday, Donald Trump will place his hand upon a Bible and if no lightning strike is incoming, recite the presidential oath of office.
When the Chief justice of the Supreme Court shakes his hand, Donald Trump will become only the second man to serve non consecutive terms as president and the first convicted criminal to inhabit the White House.
He will not, on this occasion, stand on one of the balconies of the Capitol Building, face the Mall, and address a crowd smaller than he will later claim it was.
As of this recording, the plan was to defer to a brutal D.C.
cold snap and conduct proceedings under the Rotunda roof.
It will be, if you will, an indoor garation here all week, etc.
The first time Trump was sworn in, eight years ago, it was possible to regard Trump's election as a glitch, an aberration, or a novelty, or perhaps too loftily harrumph that 63 million Americans had simply not considered the downsides of electing to earth's most powerful office someone of Trump's meager qualifications and abundant apparent disqualifications.
Four years ago, even if 74 million Americans did vote to extend Trump's stint, it was possible to sigh, well, at least that's all over.
Back to normal and so forth.
Especially after Trump's efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 election by subterfuge and violence.
This time, no such consolations are available to those who may have yearned for them.
What turned out to be a conclusive plurality of 77 million Americans who cannot by now have been in much doubt about who and what they were voting for, wanted Donald Trump back.
They have him, as does the world, for four more years.
Though it seems a reasonable bet that the wisdom of abolishing the 22nd Amendment will become a Trump world talking point circa 2020.
How will Trump's second administration differ from his first?
What will Trump's second inaugural address portend for America and the world?
And what makes a great and not great inaugural speech?
This is the Foreign Desk.
You know, this is probably the most dangerous thing the United States Senate's done in a long time.