Is Trump Already Our De Facto President?

Guy Benson reporting for Townhall 

The French president -- whose government has been buffeted by chaos in recent days -- invited President-elect Donald Trump to Paris to help commemorate the reopening of the iconic Notre Dame cathedral, after a damaging fire in 2019.  Trump accepted the invitation, meeting with a number of European leaders on the trip, having already huddled with other world leaders at Mar-a-Lago in recent days.  During the festivities, as Sarah noted over the weekend, a stream of dignitaries lined up to warmly greet the incoming American president, as cameras rolled.  These are striking images, both because of who is depicted in them, but also because of who wasn't there.  One might be forgiven for watching this footage and assuming Donald Trump is already President of the United States -- as relayed by one of his top State Department nominees:

Another related clip:

It is impossible to avoid juxtaposing these scenes with the reality that the current, sitting President of the United States was not in attendance at all.  These may be harsh comments, but they're also inevitable and reasonably-founded observations:

The man who is nominally running the US government was represented in France by his wife and daughter, who even appeared to have gotten a bit chummy with Trump, in spite of everything that has transpired over the last four-plus years.  This could have been an awkward seating arrangement, but this isn't an awkward photograph:

The sitting president was elsewhere, having been shuffled off the world stage and hidden away by his team.  Perhaps they're shielding him from questions and uncomfortable situations over his outrageous and shameless pardon-related lies and actions.  Perhaps he's just literally not able to be in public without risking embarrassment:

Biden's polling numbers are bleak as he approaches the official end of his presidency.  As noted above, it already feels like his presidency is over, so much so that some people are already blaming the not-yet-president for current problems:

"Trumpflation."  He's weeks away from being inaugurated. I'll leave you with this: