Donald Trump’s effect on the minds of certain people was to plunge them into a heroic story. For QAnon and other hard-core Trumpers, the November election and the days leading up to the January 6 riot at the Capitol were the downbeat in the story before the glorious finale. If you read “Save the Cat!” — the screenwriter’s cheat sheet for story beats — you know that every great Hollywood epic has these moments before the end, the moment when “All Hope Is Lost,” and our hero faces his Dark Night of the Soul. By January 5, Mike Pence was transformed in their eyes into a character like Professor Snape from the Harry Potter books — the one character who could make a final choice between the Evil Establishment and our Hero.
In the end, Trump would issue a series of confusing statements and half-concessions, half-abandoning the people who thought they were a new American Revolution. The shirtless guy with the horns on his head had no idea what to do in Congress once he got into the Senate Chamber. A Trump supporter was shot and killed. And now, Trump has his own personal version of Twitter, where he issues opinions on his enemies. He still polls well among Republicans.
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