This week in the saga

The last chapter of the exile opens with the ledger, and the ledger is enormous. His committees report a hundred and twenty-two million dollars on hand after raising fifty-one million in six months — more money than any candidate out of office has ever sat on — and there is still no channel of his own to spend it through. The rally in Texas is carried live by four networks and a video service, all of them named in the notice, none of them his. The day after, a carrier announces it is dropping the smallest of them, and one of the five pipes goes dark. A state court strikes down the mail ballot rules he has argued about for fourteen months, which changes no result. He has the money, he has the crowds, and everything that carries his voice belongs to somebody else. Two weeks to go.