As Donald Trump departs Andrews Air Force Base, and takes off for Florida, he will stare out of the aircraft window and perhaps glimpse some of the 25,000 troops patrolling the streets of America’s capital. It is an apt last image - a capital in lockdown, stalked by fear - and a metaphor for his chaotic four years in the White House.
He is leaving behind the political wreckage of a failed presidency. On this Inauguration Day, with Joe Biden being sworn in at 5pm today, UK time, it is impossible to overstate the scale of Trump’s isolation.
In addition, the President - the former President, as of noon local time - has a world of legal and political pain coming his way. Federal and state prosecutors are circling, knowing that he has now lost the legal immunity that comes with the Oval Office.
There is also his imminent trial in the Senate on the charge of inciting an insurrection. He faces the real possibility of conviction - if 17 Republican Senators join the 50 Democrats. That would be followed by a quick vote to ban him from ever again seeking federal office.
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will try to put Trump in the rear-view mirror and focus on their urgent agenda. They want to move quickly on climate change, immigration reform, and tough new measures to bring the pandemic under control.
But the skulking, disruptive figure of Donald Trump will be there in the background, a leader-in-exile at his Mar-o-Lago resort. He will do everything to stay relevant and to take revenge on those he believes have betrayed him. His weapon is a formidable one - the tens of millions of Americans who voted for him and who share his view that the election was stolen.
They aren’t going anywhere. Trump’s hardline supporters won’t dissipate at noon today. They won’t be reconciled to the Biden White House.
Their anger and grievances with the political establishment are deep seated, as I saw for himself during the storming of Congress on January 6th. They believe that they have been betrayed by the system, and their fury will be one of the dominant stories of the next four years.
The Republican party is likely to split. It could never absorb Trump’s assault on its principles, and now Senators must make a politically impossible choice. They can vote to convict Trump and sign their own political death warrants. Or they can keep his supporters on side, but at what cost to their conscience and reputation?
Donald Trump spoke of “American carnage” in his Inaugural address exactly four years ago. He wasn’t far off the mark. It is just we never understood that he was the man to inflict it.
* Robert Moore is the ITV News Washington correspondent. He was only the TV reporter in the world to follow the mob as it stormed Congress. His documentary, Storming the Capitol: The Inside Story, is available on the ITV hub.
