Instead of spending his political seed on the presidency this early out, Trump would be wiser to follow Steve Bannon’s proposal and run for a safe House seat in 2022, with the objective of being elected Speaker by an incoming Republican majority. Crazy as it sounds, he wouldn’t actually have to run to become Speaker because the Constitution doesn’t stipulate that the Speaker must be a member of Congress. In this scenario, if Trump got the gavel, he could monkey-wrench the Biden presidency with impeachment hearings. If he got extremely lucky and took out Kamala Harris, too, the order of succession would mean he could return to the White House again. Creepy, huh?

But by announcing a presidential run this far out, Trump won’t be accorded any substantial journalistic ink for a long time. Posing as a potential new Speaker of the House, however, would force the press corps’ hand. It would have to cover his every move between now and November 2022. Even if he lost, he would then be perfectly positioned for a presidential run.

Instead of acting all regal like “President” Trump, the man from the dark tower should play the role of Citizen Trump, the outsider and political hand-to-hand combat fighter. He can go ahead and act as if he has his party in a headlock. He can brag about how he raises campaign funds by the metric ton because that’s a fact. He can crow about his ability to summon crowds in the thousands. He can even send those wacky fundraising emails. But the best public image for Trump right now is of a one-hit wonder on the comeback trail, not a deposed king. Even his followers have stopped believing he’ll be restored to the White House in a couple of weeks. Pretending to be president isn’t sufficiently Trumpy to reinsert himself into his base’s dialogue.