Indeed, Trump's not gone yet. He's a cult leader with tens of millions of loyalists. Indeed, the size of his cult may make him the head of a religion (Trumpism).

I agree that in terms of cultural spectacle, Trump's functionally some kind of American shadow, an avatar of Americans' worst impulses.

I'm not sure Trump's victimization by nature makes him a scapegoat, though. As I recently said in response to another commenter on this article, Trump's legally culpable for his many malevolent acts, so he's not innocent in a legal sense.

Trump's supervillainy puts him beyond the ordinary distinction between good and bad, which is to say he's monstrous. We may scapegoat Trump, by using him as a distraction and to avoid recognizing our hypocrisy, but I think a scapegoat should be a more innocent kind of victim.