Then the midterms happened, and Trump's candidates got slaughtered. In announcing his candidacy, Trump seemed low-energy, depressed and humiliated. He had trapped himself in a corner by promising to make the big speech right after midterms, obviously in anticipation of happier results. Of course, he couldn't be seen backing down. Besides, as the criminal prosecutions close in, Trump undoubtedly wants some protection as a presidential candidate.

Adding insult, DeSantis had just won a big reelection victory, albeit against a nearly invisible Democratic Party and lackluster candidate. And DeSantis took some thunder from Trump's anticipated call to arms by lobbing his first spitball the day before. He called the election results "hugely underwhelming" for Republicans while leaving out "and you know why." That made the dig of greater concern because it smartly didn't attack Trump directly but just alluded to his political impotence.

Trump made a big push for his last standing endorsement, Georgia senatorial candidate Herschel Walker. The morally vacant former football star was left standing only because his opponent, the incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, couldn't get his vote count over the 50% mark, as required by Georgia law. Thus, there will be a runoff.

Trump has been raising money for Walker, and yes, he'd been keeping 90% of the funds for himself. And so it goes.

The pinpricks pile up. Ivanka has publicly distanced herself from her father's campaign. The news channels, Fox News included, broke away from Tuesday's drone. And the formerly friendly New York Post mocked Trump, with a bottom-of-the-front-page headline reading, "Florida Man Makes Announcement. Page 26."

That's not to say that Trump's worshipful followers can't cause political havoc. It's obvious that he's going to pull their strings until the box closes on the last dead-ender. But to the extent that Trump remains a threat, he's a threat to the Republican Party whose leaders are currently at each other's throats, also by his design.

For the innocent bystanders who've felt trapped in Trump's wackiness, the man is no longer "The Terror Ride" but more a house of funny mirrors.

The America of Joe Biden, meanwhile, offers respite as a normal country with problems to solve. And Trump's "American carnage" has become strictly his own.

Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.