Trump's cynical weaponizing of race reemerged on Monday when his White House chose the national holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

The continued devotion of Trump's loyal base voters means that while Biden can wipe out many of the outgoing President's policy wins, removing his influence from politics may well be impossible.

As he moves into retirement, Trump's presidency will personify the divides between two halves of a populace -- one largely conservative and rural and the other more liberal suburban and city dwelling.

His shattering of the tradition of peaceful US transfers of power threatens to suffocate Biden's legitimacy and prolong the nation's agony at a time of dire crises.

After his final White House departure on Wednesday, Trump's Marine One will fly over miles of iron fencing and troops protecting the US Capitol from a repeat of the mob insurrection he enlisted and inspired.

Like his election sedition, Trump's denial over Covid-19 was rooted in an incessant focus on his own political needs rather his oath to faithfully execute the office of the presidency he swore in January 2017.

How Trump's voters react to his departure will not only shape the future of the GOP -- a party that has shown itself to live in fear of Trump's base -- but will have huge implications for American unity in time to come.

A more quiet future

Biden's inheritance is the most challenging of any new President since Franklin Roosevelt, who took office in the teeth of the Great Depression in 1933, at a time when Nazism was building its totalitarian horror in Europe.

And every President faces crises that they could never have anticipated.

But one thing is for sure -- his White House will be far more conventional, quiet and stable than Trump's.