There appears to be a school of thought that Trump is planning on milking $$$ from his base and keeping them energised for his tilt at the 2024 Presidential election.
It seems to me that part of the attraction to his fans is that he IS the President, fresh off Air Force One, with his ‘glamorous’ FLOTUS and all the trappings of power.
In a couple of years - even if he gets his own media empire off the ground (between appearances in court) he’s just going to be an angry old Right Winger, Venting into the air. Melania will have bailed. He won’t get the MSM coverage he currently does. His twitter a/c will probably have been shut down. Even Fox will probably avoid him like the plague.
Surely, even his most die-hard supporters will have moved on to the next shiny thing by then. … Won’t they?
Will Biden rescind the executive order decriminalizing “Merry Christmas”?
‘Who gives a fuck about the fucking Christmas?’
There will be a contest among the current RW glitterati and wannabe-glitterati to be the next charismatic authoritarian. Trump will surely be in the pole position come January 21. How well he will hold that lead depends on lots of other considerations that are too uncertain to make any confident predictions. If a week is an eternity in politics, 4 years is 200 eternities. Path dependency is huge in human history for a reason.
My bottom line: An interesting question conceptually, but little more than a Rorschach test practically. However you assume determines how you will conclude.
As soon as he leaves the White House, Trump is either a loser or a victim; neither of which is held in very high regard on the right.
The OP also implicitly assumes that Trump won’t be Fuhrer on 1/21. We’ve got other threads on that point, so I’m not trying to debate it here.
But as you suggest via the converse, Trump’s attractiveness to his followers will go way up, not down, if he manages to stay on by whatever means.
Maybe we’ll be “lucky” and he’ll just get a new TV show and do celebrity product endorsements.
I beg to differ. “Victim” is what those on the right play so well. Their whole motivation for getting out of bed in the morning is to exact revenge upon those who have done them wrong (as a Christian, as a white person, as a man, as a straight person, as a military worshipper, etc).
A pathological narcissist fading away? A pathological narcissist who is a Former President of the United States™ with a massive cult following and willing media partners?
Hm, it coul’ happen. 
Narcissist gotta narcissist.
I agree with you. In fact, I have sort of decided he is halfway being the obstinate horses’ ass he is being because all of the coverage is still about him. Forty to fifty minutes of every news hour is about Trump’s outlandish breaking of norms and the rest is split between Biden’s efforts and Corona Virus. (Both of which stories mention him because he is making himself the story even now.)
Once he is out of the White House his stock falls flatter than sales projections for pet rocks and mood rings. He will become the past as soon as we ignore him; we will ignore him once his position of power is removed from him. Six or eight months from now news coverage of Trump will consist of:
“And finally in other news today, Donald Trump- former president had another attempt to dismiss charges denied today in Federal/State/International Court. The judge told the former President and his council to be ready for court in two weeks or face contempt of court charges. And now to Kim with today’s water skiing squirrel story.”
By that point most “conservatives” will have moved on to some other shiny thing as the OP suggests. Old timers will sit around and remember the good old days when Trump was Pres and racism was acceptable the way Archie Bunker loved Hoover. I fully expect the next darling of the Republican Party to blame Trump for everything that went wrong and for the rest of the party to follow that as blindly as they followed Trump.
I see what you did there.
I think those media partners will drop him like flaming dog feces once he can’t pardon, fire, or manipulate anyone using his power of office. Fox has already written him off and the others right wing outlets will drop him or shrink back to a small niche market, or both. I believe at the most half of his supporters will drop him immediately, another ten or twelve percent over the next six months and once a new golden boy (or gal) emerges on the right the remnant will half again.
Paula White and Robert Jeffress will explain that Trump turned his back on God and that was why he lost the election – he was disobedient unto the Lord and let the godless Socialists take our once great nation. Even the cable news networks that disrespect Trump to the fullest amount give him tons of free airtime daily. As soon as he is out of power – he will be out of influence and interest.
If I were FOX, here is what I would do. Six or seven months from now, I would do an experiment. For one 7 day period I would completely ignore Trump, never mention his name, essentially ghost him. Instead, I would do the usual Biden and the Liberals are the anti-christ stuff. Y’know, the stories they have pre-written for when a D is in office. Then, for the next week, I would focus on Trump and how badly he is being treated. I would have him on, let him call in and blather on, just like the good old days! Then, I would compare ratings for those two weeks.
I have a strong suspicion that Trump week would win big.
[Non MAGA viewer of the future]
Man, Fox really jumped the Trump!
[/NMV]
I disagree – but believe your basic premise is correct.
FOX News viewers feel like they are being victimized and marginalized ALL THE TIME! They loved Trump because he played the victim so efficiently: “They hate me but we will prevail.” Four moths after he is out of office not only will he no longer be a victim they care about – he is likely to be the fault himself.
The Biden is the anti-christ story will be plenty to let them feel like things are going down hill and everything was much better “back then”. They still get their pity party without having to rationalize Trump’s insanity. Just my opinion.
I guess it would be too much to hope they could just report whatever news happens without putting any spin at all on it. To just inform the public without trying to influence. No, that’s crazy talk!! I guess cable news now serves the purpose that soap operas and professional wrestling used to fill – to give us good guys to root for and bad guys to root against. I just hope Biden gets a small honeymoon window before everything he does is criticized, demonized, and even his motives are suspect.
Just my best guess based upon current and past performance.
There is no basis on which to hope that. It has no place in their playbook.
If they broadcast Joe being sworn in, there’ll be a vioceover by some RW talking head going on about how Joe’s hand is not properly raised, or not properly on the book, or about how each word Joe says is a lie as it comes out his mouth. etc.
The demonization started years ago and won’t skip a beat with the inauguration. In fact it’ll get a lot stronger the moment Joe has actual ability to change anything.
There’s loose talk about Trump going on to become a radio commentator, a talk show personality.
I don’t see it… The guy is too painfully inarticulate.
I remember when former L.A. Police Chief Daryl Gates took up the microphone for a stint as a talk show host. Awful! “Um…uh…uh…um…” Poor bastard just couldn’t pull off the necessary articulation. I think Trump would be as bad, or worse.
Rudy 2024! Dye Hard!