Donald Trump has the smell of mortification on him, the stench of political death. It’s a smell that politicians recognise instantly on others. They know it a mile off.

This is why the US President is now one of the loneliest figures on the world stage. One by one, his allies have turned their backs on him.

Just months ago, it was different. How they loved him. He was the god-king, the herald, the harbinger of a dark new age. Kemi Badenoch’s first PMQs took place just after his election victory last November and she could barely contain her glee. She mocked then-foreign secretary David Lammy for criticising Trump and demanded Keir Starmer apologise for it. Her very first question as opposition leader was to demand the British Prime Minister debase himself before a hard-right American president.

Nigel Farage went further. He seemed ready to cut out his own heart and offer it to Trump on a platter, so he could feast on it at leisure. “His resilience is almost unbelievable,” he told LBC breathlessly. “We are witnessing the greatest political comeback of modern times.”

These were the standard reactions of right-wing populists across the world. Trump was the spear of destiny. His return to office suggested they were inevitable, that their movement could only succeed. Liberal democracy was dead and they were its undertakers.

Everything looks different today. Somewhere in Budapest right now, Viktor Orbán is trying to accept his defeat. He is finished, after 16 years in power.

Of his many regrets,........

© iNews