It was entirely predictable that Donald Trump would engineer a telenovela-style storyline to sustain interest in his will-he-or-won’t-he plot to potentially re-assume power in 2024. For every move that he makes demonstrably indicating another run for president—holding campaign-style rallies, for instance, or uttering coy remarks in interviews, or even dropping thinly-veiled smoke bombs in super PAC email blasts to put ambitious Republicans on notice—Trump also makes dramatic zags away from campaign politics, yawing towards a more lucrative post-presidential life. Such is the nature, of course, of a supremely undisciplined superego reaching for the levers of power and attention in a post-Twitter and post-White House existence. And it’s also the result of neutered, powerless Republican establishment fearfully overthinking a political moment rather than defining it. Again, it was entirely predictable. But what comes next?