My question is whether he will bother fighting anywhere. What stands between Trump and a second term is a legal battle that would make Bush v. Gore look like a day in traffic court. The president who mumbled through his prepared remarks on Thursday night sounded tired. He spoke without enthusiasm about the supposed crimes of his political enemies, hinted at the perfidy of election officials, alluded vaguely to the possibility of legal remedy for these offenses, and with an almost sublime indifference affirmed his own victory, not as a future prospect but as a historical fact already being ignored.

Somebody needs to keep this drowsy emperor awake.