To accuse former President Donald Trump of being petulant is like accusing a cow of being bovine or a butterfly of being flighty. His toddlerlike self-absorption, for reasons that continue to elude me, does not bother his working-class base. But even his supporters generally recognize that a certain boastful sulkiness is part of his brand.

Even so, the tetchy way in which he has reacted to the replacement of President Joe Biden by Vice President Kamala Harris is spectacularly self-defeating.