The party has yet to reclaim its equilibrium. Come 2024, it will have been nine years since Trump coasted down a golden elevator in Trump Tower and proceeded to break Republican politics. Trump proved a winning vessel in 2016 but couldn’t convince enough voters that he was worth the hourly drama four years later. The real question facing official Washington-namely, Republicans who wield power-is one about its pain threshold. The MAGA crowd just needs a nudge to remember why his blindingly loud rallies caused so many hearts to flutter. And Trump’s political circle seems ready to turn the key on another go. Voters are just now starting to really tune into the November elections. Congress seems coasting into the August recess. 6 attack on the Capitol has seemingly completed its summer schedule and is poised to start drafting at least an early version of its report. The timing of the trip comes at a near-perfect state-managed moment. But he might find a more skeptical GOP, with some who have newly soured on the Trumpist wing as they learn more and more damning details about Trump’s behavior around the Jan. After all, so much of Trump’s animating power comes from his personal preferences and individual grievances. A second act serves as much as a restoration of power as a way to stick it to the man. His contempt of the political elites has not abated, even as he retreated to Florida and then to New Jersey. So, what is Trump’s play here? He clearly has his eyes on 2024 and is laying the groundwork for his return to office. 6 hearings may have exposed Trump’s glass jaw. As TIME’s Brian Bennett reports, the Jan. Trump remains a driving factor in politics, although the appetite for his shenanigans has diminished as more time has passed since his term. Republicans look poised to have a good showing and could well take back control of the House and Senate alike, but Trump and his ongoing show could shade the GOP’s polling if the party isn’t careful to control for the bleed. Trump has hinted that he’ll be on the ballot in 2024, and his advisers are at this point just trying to keep him from pulling the trigger on a campaign until after November’s midterms. In a way, though, the return to The Swamp by one of its most unapologetic figures comes as a mini-launch of his comeback tour. Billed as a summit of his non-profit America First Policy Institute, the two-day event is heavy on MAGA-World quasi-celebrities and will feature a speech from the man who is still nursing wounds from 2020. Like a bad hype reel for a reality show, Trump this week returns to Washington for the first time since he left the presidency. In fact, Trump exited the presidency before his successor could show up and take over, effectively punching out before his carriage reverted to a pumpkin when the clock struck noon. Like so much of his presidency, his post-presidency seems to delight in shattering expectations. 6, 2021, dominates much of Congress’ agenda. His endorsement remains a powerful factor in Republican politics, his return to politics looms on the horizon for 2024, and his conduct ahead of and on Jan. That is decidedly not the playbook in the hands of former President Donald Trump, who despite his exodus from Washington remains an agenda-setting figure in town.

Then again, most ex-Presidents long for a fade into the worn background of history.

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