I am trying to imagine the unimaginable.

Donald John Trump won’t be president of the United States forever, even though it is likely to seem like forever even after he leaves office.

I hope he leaves sooner rather than later. The “sooner” might occur on Jan. 20, 2021, when his current term expires and he hands the White House keys over to whomever succeeds him. The “later” — heaven forbid! — might arrive four years later, in 2025, when he walks away after a second term.

What is unimaginable is the thought of Donald Trump fading quietly into the sunset, into the woodwork, that he’ll not be seen or heard except only on rare occasions.

Ohhh, no. What is more likely to occur is that we’ll never escape Donald Trump for as long as he draws breath. No one lives forever, although Trump might want us to believe that he’s the exception to that hard-and-fast rule.

Recent previous presidents generally have subscribed to a certain rule: They’ve had their time at the center of power; then they hand it over to someone else and they disappear from public view — more or less. President George H.W. Bush was famously quiet when he gave way to President Clinton in 1993; Clinton has maintained a bit of a public presence, but has been mostly out of the limelight since turning it over to W. in 2001. President George W. Bush was quiet during his successor’s two terms, and President Obama has kept quiet during Donald Trump’s term.

Does anyone expect the current president to follow the model set by so many of his predecessors? Does anyone seriously expect No. 45 to keep his Twitter fingers still while whoever succeeds him engages in policymaking, let alone if the next president decides to undo some of the decisions that Trump and his team implemented during his time in the White House? Imagine, for instance, the next president reinstituting some of the environmental regulations that Trump summarily terminated and then Trump sitting quietly while that happens.

Donald Trump vowed to be an unconventional president and, by golly, he has made good on that pledge. I am concerned, though, that he’s going to be an equally unconventional former president who’ll be unable or unwilling to just fade away.

My hope is that we get to find out quickly.