If Americans vote for a Republican majority in both houses of Congress in November, “I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000.” But they must not spend it in Canada or China or anywhere else outside the US. So said Donald Trump in Texas on Wednesday in advance of the forthcoming midterm elections. He further told voters to “Pretend that I’m on the ballot”. It was a climactic moment in an almost two-hour rant.

Trump does not have the required trillion dollars in his pocket, and it would be illegal to disperse such a sum without congressional approval. In any case, JD Vance now appears to have rowed back on the promise.

Observers from abroad must beware: it is unwise to subject Trump’s populism to the discipline of truth. Trump also said Americans should thank him for attacking Iran since that country was “two, maybe three weeks away from having a nuclear weapon”, which it intended to use against them. It was the old Saddam Hussein gambit.

The problem is that almost every one of Trump’s speeches refers back to himself, as if he and the United States were synonymous. He claimed to have won the presidency three times. He says: “If we hadn’t won the last election, I’m not sure that our country right now would even exist.” He added that the arena where he was speaking was packed, with crowds outside clamouring to get........

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