In the final weeks of the campaign it was hard not to interpret the images of Donald Trump’s turgid, endless rallies as proof of collective exhaustion on the part of his party. The interpretation was wrong, and still it was tempting: the tight smiles on the faces of Kristi Noem and various Republican officials as they watched the former President sway to “Time to Say Goodbye” and other hand-picked favorites for over half an hour, the all-too-knowing laughter of Trump’s audiences as he played the hits—the “weave,” Hannibal Lecter—the upper rows of arenas empty or emptying as the hours dragged on. The magnetism of this strange and sui generis performer was never fully absent in these speeches, but it did feel like the light had dimmed. Hadn’t it been dimming for years? Last weekend the Atlantic ran a juicy piece about the chaos and despair inside the Trump campaign.…