CAN THE NATION WAIT UNTIL JAN. 20? Joe Biden has 42 more days to serve as president of the United States. But anyone watching events in Paris over the weekend would think President-elect Donald Trump has already taken office. The president-elect traveled to France ostensibly to celebrate the reopening of Notre Dame cathedral, but the visit turned into high-level diplomacy between European leaders — French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, among others — and the next U.S. president. With the war in Ukraine at a critical stage, not to mention the Middle East continuing its meltdown, the event took on enormous significance, with Trump acting as de facto leader of the free world. The real president for the next six weeks, Biden, was back home, resting up.

Trump is quickly assembling an administration. After several weeks of mostly quiet working, he has been speaking more publicly in recent days about what he will do when he assumes the presidency on Jan. 20. Leaders in Washington and in the world are planning and preparing for that time. Biden seems less and less relevant to the conversation. “Biden has effectively disappeared from the radar,” Politico reports. “Within the Democratic Party, on Capitol Hill — and even within his own administration — it feels like he left the Oval Office weeks ago.”