The bumpy-ride-fasten-your-seat-belts turbulence of the past five or so months has been brought to you free of charge by what I call the “reality principle”: this is what happens when a reality star meets, for the first time in his life at the ripe age of 70, a reality he cannot control.

Never before has America dealt with a leader who has been as cocooned as was Donald Trump in money and privilege, or rather of privilege purchased by money, a setting in which he could never be fired and there were very few people who couldn’t be bought. The son of a rich man who began at the top in the family business, he sought a second career as an entertainment celebrity, thus combining in one lifetime the two venues that best cultivate a fully self-centered mindset.