Asked last Friday by a reporter how, when, and whether he intended to concede to Joe Biden, President Trump said, “I’m the president of the United States. Don’t ever talk to the president that way.”

In a way, it’s nice that Trump should come to have this sudden concern about manners, but it’s spoiled a bit by the fact he could only manage it on his way out the door. In fact, bad manners, along with contempt and disrespect for all others, had been Trump’s stock in trade from when he stepped off the escalator in Trump Tower in June 2015. It carried over into the first debate of that season, when Trump managed to turn the event into a cross between the Hunger Games and mud wrestling. There was no concern for such things as restraint or good manners.