Insiders report that President Trump is in a dark place. His increasingly crazed, increasingly frequent tweets and rallies make the darkness visible. One of the uses of art and history is to help us make sense of life by providing images and models to compare our experience with — archetypes, templates, paradigms.

So who or what does Trump resemble that might help us grasp what’s happening before our eyes? Often on the campaign trail, he seems to be channelling angry birds, but much of his time is spent as a lurking recluse. He’s like Boo Radley, except that he seems more likely to assault the Finch children than to save them.

He also seems stuck in the past, obsessing not about better days but about bitter disappointments — like Miss Havisham from “Great Expectations.” She was jilted at the altar and wore her wedding dress in her rotting mansion for the rest of her life.

But she was a gentle, heartbroken soul. Trump is more like Catherine Sloper from James’s “Washington Square” ( or the film version, “The Heiress”). She too was jilted, but plotted and connived and enacted a cruel revenge. But who jilted Trump? He’s president.

Yet his grievances are on full, unceasing display. He didn’t win the popular vote, losing to a woman. Many in his own party and administration are insufficiently loyal, distrust hm and regard him as unfit for office. The press that he has courted for decades refuses to be his credulous friend, but in his mind is a critical enemy.

Worst of all, perhaps, though his lifelong aspiration was to rise from the Dauphin of Queens to become the King of New York, he lost the Empire State by a 60-36 margin, and was whipped out in Manhattan, with Hillary winning over 80 percent.

So, he obsessively relives past glories and avoids all reminders of the present’s bitter reality. He surrounds himself with other lost souls who share his anger, frustration, resentment and feelings of being dispossessed. Thus the rallies, the shrinking circle of family and reliable acolytes, his reliance on only favorable news from Fox, Alex Jones, Breitbart and now QAnon.

Where have we seen this before? Of course, Norma Desmond from “Sunset Boulevard.” She said, “I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.” And, “No one ever leaves a star. That’s what makes one a star.” And, “This is my life! It always will be! Nothing else! Just us, and the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark!… All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.”

Except that Trump is, perhaps, more like an aging pop-star who has to keep replaying his greatest hits to smaller and smaller crowds. This would be pitiful or comic except that he’s still the president with the power to remake the world to please his fan base which includes he greedy rich, the bigoted fringe, the actually fake news media, and foreign enemies only too willing to exploit his need for affirmation for their own ends.

This pathology may help explain his program for success in the midterms. He’s going to give his dwindling base what he thinks they want and his enemies what he knows they will hate.

So, Trump is now promising another tax cut, this time on capital gains. Once again, he will rob the poor of programs they need so he can provide $100 billion more in handouts to the wealthy. How many of the people at his rallies pay capital gains? Very few, since 86% of the benefits will go to the top one percent, those who earn over $1.48 million a year. But they re donor. Besides, as Frost said, “Better to go down dignified/ With boughten friendship by your side? Than none at all.” Especially when you aren’t paying for the handout. He can put in on the deficit. About what you’d expect from a man who went bankrupt repeatedly.

Trump also promises to keep increasing tariffs on China until they cry Uncle Sam, but it is not clear who’s a fan of this maneuver. American farmers and manufacturers are already crying for relief. And they can vote, so how long can Trump and the Republicans hold out? Not as long as Xi Jinping. His people don’t get a vote.

Trump has recently reacted to criticism of his policy at the border by promising to get even tougher on illegal immigrants. He’s also had Jeff Sessions announce an anti-gay policy under the guise of religious freedom, and he is aiming to roll back regulations which will bring us dirtier less fuel-efficient vehicles which automakers don’t want. And he has attacked LeBron James. This is all obviously aimed at pleasing the gun-rack in the pick-up truck voter. Can a new version of the Muslim ban be far behind?

Trump has also made the blood of Senators and Congressmen run cold by suggesting a government shutdown in October unless he gets his wall. Is government grinding to a halt really what his party needs a couple weeks before the voting takes place?

Nor can one can rule out an even bigger October, or September or August surprise. Perhaps Trump firing Bob Mueller, Rod Rosenstein, Jeff Sessions, and any other betrayers in one giant bloodbath. So, maybe he’s not Norma Desmond after all. Maybe he’s Medea. If I was Jared or Don, Jr. I’d keep my bedroom door locked.

Or even worse, he may be Wotan, perfectly wiling to set Valhalla afire in a Trmperdammerung. We can only hope Mad Dog Mattis can keep Trump away from the matches. And the launch codes.