Trump 47 seemed different. “He has learned”, was the oft-heard refrain. And he did a shed load of good, at home and abroad, during the first year.

Not least were the canny picks. Especially the big three – Vance, Rubio and (especially) RFK Jr, the all-time COVID hero among men. (I have always thought that his father, RFK, was a rare star. An arsehole, to be fair, but a star. But the son has been way better.)

MADNESS

Then came the madness of 2026. I don’t mean Persia. Too early to tell, on that one. And I am not persuaded by the endless punditocracy, led by Trump apostates Candice Owens, Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly.

Expertise is compromised, always, by blatant Jew hatred. But they might just be accidently correct on Trump’s over-the-cliff year.

Let’s start with the sackings. Noehm and Bondi were high profile recruits. Gorgeous, of course. Now gone.

Whatever their crimes, one always gets the feeling, with Trump, that it is all about something personal. And it suggests a whiff of Trump 45, who went on (then) to be a COVID disaster.

Then we have the attack on the Pope. After Francis (a faith-shaker of a pontiff) I am agnostic about Pope Leo.

One papal attack on social media doesn’t make a summer, of course. But, the signs are portentous and not good.

Freewheeling (good) can suddenly look like mayhem (bad). Not good in a US President.

Trump is carrying on like a post mid-terms second term president. The problem is we haven’t had the mid-terms yet. Which, now, are likely to give the Democrats a majority in the House of Representatives.

This will mean more impeachments (guaranteed) and a totally blown-away last two years of the 47th presidency.

And the MAGA revolution? Goneski. Is that what Trump really wants? What is he even thinking?

We have just seen, in Hungary, that the populist insurgency, with all its hope, is forever fragile. Orban is gone.