If Election Day seemed to be a dream (or, rather, nightmare) devoid of logic, the week since has done little to render the world more coherent.

Let’s review:Donald Trump, exulting in his big win, addressed the question of The Wall. You know, the central pledge of his candidacy, reiterated at every rally. A mighty barrier between the United States and Mexico that only he was potent enough to erect.

And what did he have to say?That it might be a mere fence in spots.

A fence! Just three days after his victory, he was downscaling, backtracking. At this rate, he’ll be talking at his inauguration about a glorious hedge along the border. By April it’ll be flowering shrubs, with blossoms that spell out “Welcome to America.” And by June? Some sort of new Christo installation, maybe the world’s largest-ever topiary display.

As for Obamacare, it’s apparently not so awful after all. Trump said he liked the part that lets kids stay on their parents’ insurance plans, which is, if you think about it, sort of what Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric have been doing all along. He also liked the part that prevents insurers from disqualifying people for pre-existing conditions.

My hunch? If some crafty Democrat drafts legislation to keep the Affordable Care Act as is but rechristen it Trumpcare, he’ll sign the bill in a nanosecond. He’s a man in thrall to ego, not policy.

President Obama is betting on that. He’s suddenly professing faith in Trump — or, rather, playing a fascinating mind game in which he endeavors to save his legacy by complimenting Trump into compliance.

That was some through-the-looking-glass news conference on Monday, when Obama, who had previously warned that Trump was all four horsemen of the apocalypse rolled into one shocking jockey, spoke of Trump’s “gifts” and how “gregarious” he could be.

“I don’t think he is ideological,” Obama said. “Ultimately, he is pragmatic.” From your lips, Mr. President, to God’s ear.

He said that their initial meeting had gone so well that he could, on this last foreign trip of his presidency, allay our allies’ anxieties.

Never mind that Trump and Vladimir Putin were already whispering sweet nothings to each other over the phone. (“You’re the man.” “No, you’re the man.”) Or that Steve Bannon was en route to the West Wing.

Perhaps the Bannon appointment didn’t sink in fully until Tuesday, when Obama, in Greece, had chillier words of warning about the direction in which a Trump administration might — but mustn’t — turn.

“We are going to have to guard against a rise in a crude sort of nationalism,” he said. That’s hardly the extent of the vigil. Trump is reportedly seeking security clearances for his children, who will be running his business, and a former State Department official watching an increasingly messy transition process took to Twitter to warn other Republicans to “stay away” from Trump’s “angry, arrogant” team.

Obama is partly trying to save face after Hillary Clinton’s devastating loss. In the weeks before the election, he implored Americans: Honor me by choosing her. Not enough of them did, and at Monday’s news conference, he seemed to steal a page from Trump’s playbook and take issue with her stamina.

He never said her name but noted, pointedly, how he had trudged through “every small town and fair and fish fry” in Iowa, a state that he won in 2008 and 2012 and that she, with less trudging, lost.

He also repeatedly recited a litany of yardsticks by which he was leaving the country in fantastic fettle. Was he reassuring us — or himself?From his electrifying address at the 2004 Democratic convention through his stirring 2008 presidential campaign, he spoke of transcending blue and red, uniting black and white, healing.

And here we are. It has to gall him. It definitely gives him incentive to use whatever psychological jujitsu necessary to nudge and manipulate Trump. He doesn’t want historians to write that he opened the door to a monster. So he’s pressing for a sunnier tale: the monster defanged, the nation safe and sound.

And he’s a patriot, always has been, which is what’s so rich here. Trump bangs on about putting America first, when he really puts himself before all else. That shriveled, unhinged hood ornament of his, Rudy Giuliani, is on the record questioning Obama’s love for America.

But Obama loves this country enough to summon the same grace for his successor that other presidents did for theirs, though his is a nasty, juvenile breed apart.

And he loves this country enough to try to calm it when it most needs calming, even if that means a willed optimism about Trump that’s oh so difficult to share.

<FRANK BRUNI>