As an undergraduate at university in England I studied more American history than British, including a ‘Special Subject’ on the 1840s, up to the ‘Great Compromise’ of 1850. As a result I’ve always rather admired the US political/governmental system, and especially the ‘separation of powers’ enshrined in its Constitution.

It’s because of this that I’ve been shocked, as many others have been, by the Executive branch’s (i.e. the President’s) blatant overriding of the other two branches – Legislative and Judicial (i.e. Congress and the Courts) – over the past 10-11 months; potentially creating a form of autocracy which I had always believed the US Constitution was explicitly designed to prevent. The current ‘No More Kings’ protests of course address exactly this; although – if I can indulge in a historical quibble – the impression they may give that the monarchy the American colonies broke free from in 1776-83 was an essentially autocratic one, is fundamentally misleading. George III wasn’t a ‘king’ in this sense. Britain then had her own ‘division of powers’, albeit imperfect, but hard fought for over the preceding 200-plus years; which in fact was at the root of the American idea when it was transplanted there. This may be one reason why we in Britain are particularly shocked by current events in the USA. They contravene our British as well as American notions of democracy.

It looks as though Trump scarcely understands his country’s Constitution, not having been as well educated in it as I was. Instead he was brought up narrowly as a real estate capitalist, with his moral sense almost entirely moulded by notions of profit and material success – ‘The Art of the Deal’; and by his own narcissistic desire to be regarded as a ‘great’ man. His well-known admiration for the world’s most successful – and ruthless – dictators clearly speaks to this.

Luckily for the rest of us he only has three more years of autocratic power to go;  unless, that is, on the one hand he manages to get the 22nd Amendment (limiting him to two terms) amended; or on the other hand his diet of MacDonald’s burgers and Cokes gets to his heart first. Or possibly until the Epstein files incriminate him.

But will those be revealed unredacted? And isn’t he immune from further scandals in any case? I’d put my money on the burgers.