In the theatre of politics, Trump has always upstaged. Whether cast as hero or villain he insatiably dominates the spotlight. A diviner of public sentiment, throughout his various professional iterations, Trump has elevated his unique gift for performance into an artform. In his incarnation as a politician, he has perfected the knack of cannibalising American statesmanship into American showmanship.

In doing so he has proven himself to be a remarkable shapeshifter - from an elitist billionaire to a man of the people and champion of America’s forgotten. Before our eyes the pro-abortion atheist was reinvented into the defender of the pro-life evangelical Christian right.

Trump’s character adaptation has not been sudden, but rather like a character out of a Sam Mendes movie, he has drifted subversively and purposefully, metamorphosing and metastasising tweet by tweet across our screens. He has a knack for taming chaos, talent for tapping the zeitgeist of the social media age, for wielding the politics of outrage, grievance and resentment. Yet the politics Trump weaponises is volatile when pushed to the edge. The January 6 insurrection and the threat Trump raised against democracy has made this current election existential. At stake is both the institution of democracy and the felon who seeks reprieve through the power of the ultimate office. Either Biden would emerge as the victor to stave off an increasingly authoritarian Trump, or Trump would prevail to save not America, but himself.

Butler Pennsylvania was a turning point, a polarity switch in the narrative of this election contest. The shooter, in failing to destroy the former president, has instead succeeded in rebirthing him as a symbol of something immortal. In the dreadful void between the firecracker pops and roar of the crowd, in the 75 long seconds of an empty podium, from which Trump rose and punched his triumphant fist into the air, he composed the perfect pivot, from death itself to conjuring the American resurrection. In that moment, a rural rally became an amphitheatre, raising salute to their conquering gladiator. In a story shaped to the attention span of the TikTok generation, he transformed from the antagonist of institutional democracy to its very embodiment, the saviour of the Constitution he previously sought to overturn.

In reply, bipartisan Presidents present and former, and the leaders of the free world surged to his side, jostling for position to have their support heard, to publicly express their affinity and condemnation. Not perhaps for Trump the man, but for the American nation and for Democracy itself. What followed was a unifying moment, in which a global chorus espousing orderly elections was to be bizarrely owned by Trump, himself now characterised as the righteous victim, the candidate caught in the brutality of the polarised politics that he himself had created. In the aftermath, Trump is able to inhabit an impossible duality, being both the embodiment of the democratic process and the champion for its disruptions, the outsider ready to ‘fight, fight, fight’.

In surviving the attempt on his life, Trump has become a living martyr. The evil of 13 July may yet make payday as Trump’s literal ‘get out of jail free card’. His role in the architecture of the January 6 insurrection is now mitigated, for with a deft revision of character Trump can no longer be attacked as undemocratic, now seen as risking the ultimate sacrifice in service of this democracy. But for a slight movement of his head, he would have been struck and killed in the line of duty.

Ever the star of the show, Trump has played each subsequent scene to nuanced perfection. Responding to the global caravan of tributes, he has followed suit by playing the statesman, talking to world leaders and calling for a unified America. In his words, his convention speech was going to be “extremely tough” on President Biden’s “horrible administration”, he then says, “but I threw it away” because he hopes to “unite the country”. This reversal is Trump at his best, the insult disguised as graciousness, and topped off with classic Trump walk-back “But I don’t know if that’s possible. People are very divided.”

The US constitution was crafted in a Christian colony and forged in the aftermath of war. While it set the terms for a secular state, it is imbued with Christian symbolism and reverence for sacrifice. As Jesus was the vessel of divinity on earth, Trump is now recasting himself as the incarnation of the spiritual essence of America. Not only can he claim commitment to the salvation to the American way of life, but his own on-stage ‘death’ and bold resurrection becomes a performative proof of his claimed promise to make ‘great again’. The irony is that the more genuine act of responsibility to democracy for a presidential candidate is to protect the voters right to choose. Enacting such a commitment would have been an unedifying display: agents piling on as the candidate stays down and is then whisked undercover to the motorcade within seconds. But to do so is to understand that the office is more than the man. Presidency is the role, not the actor. It is what Biden would have done.

True sacrifice does not necessarily look good in a TikTok video nor play well on Fox News. But true patriotism recognises the importance of the institution and true statesmanship realises the awesome global importance the office holds. Biden’s electoral weakness is his presidential strength. It is to place duty above self-interest, responsibility above perceptions. Instead, Trump insisted to stand, to brave harm’s way – his risk to his body was less threatening to Trump than the profound existential risk of failing to claim the election. In the mind of Trump, popularity stands above life. Like the Game of Thrones, you win, or you die. Even in a nation’s darkest hour, consistent to form, the Wall Street tycoon wagers democracy, the right of voters, against the personal prize of popularity, favour and ultimately greed.

Now at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee for his coronation, he has picked his Vice Presidential candidate, JD Vance. He has chosen a true ‘apprentice’ – one who has also morphed, from an anti-Trump defender of democracy and celebrity best-selling author to trumpeting the MAGA cause. Shapeshifting from accusing Trump of being ‘America’s Hitler’, Vance shares with Trump a willingness to compromise all moral beliefs in the pursuit of power and above all fame.