POLITICS: In the eyes of the world, America is back thanks to Donald Trump — Whether they like it or not

The reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris also marked the de facto coming out of Donald Trump as leader of the free world. 

His overbearing handshake with French President Emmanuel Macron sent a powerful message to the rest of the world. America is back, whether they like it or not.

As Trump is feted by world leaders and royalty in Paris, holds preliminary peace talks with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky and sends his envoy to the Middle East, the inauguration next month seems like a mere formality. 

Joe Biden is a pitiful afterthought in history. The ostentatiously Catholic president was somehow too busy to fit Notre-Dame into his sluggish schedule and sent his wife instead, who made googly eyes at Trump. 

Joe is PINO — President in Name Only — short for Pinocchio, appropriately enough, given his penchant for lying.

Trump, on the other hand, is at peak triumph before he even officially takes back the presidency. 

Mar-a-Lago — his private club in Palm Beach that was raided just two years ago by FBI agents, who rummaged through his wife Melania’s underwear drawer — has become the center of the universe.

The Winter White House

World leaders, movie stars and billionaires are flocking to the “Winter White House” to find favor with Trump, who presides genially at a table in the center of the balmy terrace overlooking the palm-fringed Intracoastal Waterway or takes meetings in the sumptuous wood-paneled library. 

Exquisitely dressed women glide around through the golden light that presages the golden era that Trump has promised America.

One of the “friends of Elon” who have become fixtures on the terrace said last week it was hard to leave because it is so interesting to observe the parade of courtiers who Trump “bends to his will” by sheer force of personality — and, of course, the cult status that comes from winning the most powerful office in the world against all odds. 

The other thing Trump’s friends tell him is that, with a single election, he managed to vanquish the “Five Families” of politics: the Bushes, Cheneys, Clintons, Obamas and Bidens.  

Let us count the ways.

Bushes: While former President George W. Bush has wisely resisted openly criticizing the president-elect or endorsing his Democratic opponents, the Bush family’s relationship with Trump has been strained ever since he demolished the presidential aspirations of former First Brother “Low Energy Jeb” Bush and stole the nomination out from under him in 2016. While most of them have kept their thoughts to themselves, the Bushes are influential symbols of the Republican party’s Never Trump establishment that is predominantly peopled by former Bushies and suffered a humiliating defeat on Nov. 5 at the hands of their nemesis.

Cheneys: Liz Cheney, the former Wyoming congresswoman sent packing by voters in 2022, went all in for Kamala Harris, traveling with her on the campaign trail, appearing in ads and raising millions of dollars from Never Trumpers. 

She threw her lot in with the poisonous Lincoln Project, a political action committee comprised of Trump-deranged former Bush strategists irate when their gravy train dried up in 2016. She pledged to purge the Republican party of Trump, calling him an “unrecoverable catastrophe.”

For her dubious role on the Jan. 6 committee, she also has made it onto the ballooning list of unindicted villains who the Biden White House reportedly is considering for a presidential pardon, along with COVID dictator Anthony Fauci, Russiagate Democrat Adam Schiff, General Mark “white rage” Milley, Alejandro Mayorkas, architect of the border invasion, and, of course, various first-family members, such as Jim Biden, who profited from the family influence peddling scheme

Dick Cheney, the former two-term neocon Bush veep and warmonger, joined his daughter’s war on Trump, calling him a “coward [and a person who] can never be trusted with power again.” 

Trump responded by calling him an “irrelevant RINO.” Neither Cheney has been seen in public since the election.

Clintons: Bill and Hillary Clinton threw their considerable weight behind Harris, praising her on stage at the DNC convention. “Aren’t you proud to be a Democrat,” gushed the former prez when he introduced Harris as “the president of joy.” After Harris lost, he admitted he “couldn’t sleep for two years” and was prone to “outbursts of rage” after Hillary’s loss. Who knows what he’ll do now?

Hillary, who claimed to have mentored Harris through her vice presidency, called the VP “a singular figure [who] will be our first woman president . . . I am thrilled that Kamala is carrying the torch forward.” 

At least Hillary can console herself with the thought that she is no longer the only Democrat to have lost to Trump. But after backing one too many losers, the Clintons’ era of influence is over.

Obamas lose their mojo

Obamas: Barack Obama’s very public involvement in the back-stabbing of Joe Biden and anointing of Harris has tarnished the Teflon coating the former president and his wife previously enjoyed. Michelle, once contemplated as the savior of the party, stooped to insulting men as her campaign pitch by telling them their “rage” was stopping them from choosing Harris: “If we don’t get this election right, your wife, your daughter, your mother, we as women will become collateral damage for your rage.” 

From his own angry scolding of black men to his use of the thoroughly debunked “very fine people on both sides” smear against Trump, Obama showed during the campaign that he has lost his touch with voters. 

He cemented that impression with a hysterical speech last week in which he accused Republicans of doing exactly what Democrats did to Trump: rigging elections and weaponizing the justice system. “One side tries to stack the deck and lock in a permanent grip on power, either by actively suppressing votes or politicizing the armed forces or using the judiciary criminal justice system to go after opponents,” he said, triggering hearty belly laughs all over the nation. 

It’s over for Obama. The spell is broken. Donald Trump broke him, Biden, Harris, the Bushes, the Clintons and the Cheneys. With a spring in his step and a twinkle in his eye, Trump consigned them all to the ash heap of history.