Josh Mandel is a man without a coherent philosophical identity. Initially recruited and groomed to be a candidate by neoconservative operatives, Mandel has done a complete reversal and taken to branding himself as one of former President Donald Trump’s most stalwart acolytes in a bid to win Sen. Rob Portman’s soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat.

In case it needs to be said, the neoconservative brand of hawkish, economically elite conservatism is thoroughly antithetical to Trump’s message of working-class populism and dovish, America-first foreign policy. If asked, Trump and someone such as Dick Cheney would probably agree that they could not be more different.