Democrats contemptuously suggested that the inauguration of Donald J. Trump on Friday rendered a three-ring commercial circus superfluous because now the United States has its own P. T. Barnum as president.

In an interview on “Meet the Press” last year, Mr. Trump unabashedly embraced his comparison to the embodiment of humbug and hubris. “We need P. T. Barnum, a little bit, because we have to build up the image of our country,” he said.

But, like Nero and even Barnum, Mr. Trump will have to deliver bread, too, to a nation in which millions of voters who felt shortchanged and cold-shouldered risked running away from the comfort of their traditional political cocoons on Election Day to join his traveling circus.

Regardless of one’s disguise, his delivery will reveal his true nature.