Back in June, during what turned out to be his final weeks in the job, Boris Johnson, then the British Foreign Secretary, was recorded speaking at what he thought was a private dinner.

“Imagine Trump doing Brexit,” declared the classical scholar excitedly. “He’d go in bloody hard. There’d be all sorts of breakdowns, all sorts of chaos. Everyone would think he’d gone mad. But actually you might get somewhere. It’s a very, very good thought.”