Here's my slice of autism on the subject of the trajectory of the incoming admin.
Originally I thought there would be two different general directions they could go in.
1. Retvrn to Normalcy. Exploit nostalgia for Obama years when most people did have national politics thrust on them everyday(whether this was/can be a reality is another story). I'm sure a lot of people, especially boomers, would rather have a situation where the media didn't act like the world was about to end everyday because of xyz thing Trump said. This would involve throwing the progressive left a bone on a couple small issues, which has been shown to work because they're all weak willed bitches. Not touching guns on a national level, maybe some "common sense" reform like increasing background checks and wait times. A similar approach could be taken on a variety of issues which lean towards Repubs. This would have the added effect of giving the GOP/NRA some fresh meat to complain about and fundraise on, without having to actually do anything. Starting another major war would probably be off the menu, but we would almost assuredly reup our forces in ME conflicts and antagonize Russia by spreading NATO.
2. Progressive shitfest. Go hard into anti-white anti-male identity politics. Probably still steer away from massive attacks on things like private gun ownership itself. Assault weapons ban 2.0, but with just enough loopholes that the NRA/gun owners wouldn't actually do anything. Treat former Trump supporters like nazi collaborators were treated after WW2. Prepare for 1st graders to be taught about gay sex and openly encouraged to go trans(this will happen either way but in this example it occurs under Common Core 2.0). Leverage 'wokeness' to continue to fuck over the american worker under the guise of diversity and inclusion, as previously stated "socialists" in america are 99% pro corporate sissies who only desire the ability to duck personal responsibility and will cheerlead any unholy system which grants them this. The corporate oligarchy runs wild starting wars and poisoning citizens but now we have black women in figurehead roles so everything is ok.
These were the two possible directions I could see this going in pre-post election season. 1 seemed much more likely as it would keep things mostly the same and the GOP and Dems would both remain more or less intact as they were in 2015. I underestimated the level of vitriol hardcore Dems(twitter users) have for the regular f150 drivin Trump supportin middle/lower class americans. Between the reaction to the last week and the people being nominated for positions in the admin it looks like we'll most likely get something like 2. They'd be best off if the media ignored most of the controversy, but the media cannot survive without constantly stoking the flames of division. Trump kept them on life support and if he goes to be (mostly) a private citizen they'll have to focus on every inflammatory topic to keep getting clicks and ratings. Trump will continue to try to be liked, its clear now that he only ever cared about being liked, they won't throw him in prison but they won't pardon him either.