The former president said the words “Russia” or “hoax” innumerable times during a rally the other day for Rep. Liz Cheney’s GOP primary opponent in Wyoming. The casual observer could be forgiven for thinking it was an event primarily about the Mueller probe with some throwaway lines about Harriet Hageman mixed in purely for variety’s sake.

He talked about his two impeachments and, of course, his “perfect phone call” with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

There is wisdom in the famous William Faulkner line that the past is never dead, it’s not even past. It’s an adage that’s traditionally been best suited to Southern Gothic novelists, though, rather than American politicians, who usually benefit from putting an accent on the future.

Trump’s signature 2016 boast of “I alone can fix it” has effectively become “I alone can fixate on it.”