If President Trump invited you to the White House, would you go? This is the question US hacks and other media personalities have been asking themselves since the inauguration, an American version of that self-flattering British perennial: when Buckingham Palace calls, will you be buying a fascinator to accept the OBE? In both cases, no matter how pluckily anti-establishment an individual may have been to that point, the answer is often a resounding: you bet!

First, the rationalisations. In the US context, respect for the “office of the president”, for which there is no British equivalent that doesn’t prompt sniggering, is taken seriously enough that if the president calls, you don’t turn him down. There’s the standard argument in favour of engagement over boycott as a more constructive path to account-holding. And there is, for hacks, the perfectly reasonable rationale of pursuing the story. Of course, you’re going to say yes if Trump calls. How could you not?

The question is what happens next – and it’s a tricky one, isn’t it? One minute you’re hurtling towards Washington DC on the Acela Express train fully intending to speak truth to power, the next you’ve tripped on the rug and somehow become Albert Speer. It isn’t known what Bill Maher, the comedian, talkshow host and, until recently, fierce critic of Trump, thought he was up to last month when he accepted an invitation to dine with the president. But after the event, he treated us to a

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