Of all the rotten clichés in American political discourse, ‘lame duck presidency’ is arguably the worst. It ought to be dragged out back – perhaps by the former homeland security secretary and infamous animal-slayer Kristi Noem – and strangled to death.

Yet commentators have to say something about the midterms. And since it is likely that President Trump’s party will lose on Tuesday night, expect all sorts of explanations as to just what a damaged duck Donald now is.

A weaker position on the Hill will push him back towards his favourite role: the outsider raging against DC

A weaker position on the Hill will push him back towards his favourite role: the outsider raging against DC

If (as most pollsters expect) the Republicans lose both chambers of Congress, he’ll have been ‘crushed’ and ‘humiliated’. If the Democrats win the House of Representatives (overwhelmingly likely) but narrowly miss out on the Senate, the pundits will still insist that his leadership has been ‘paralysed’ and ‘contained’.

But it’s just not true. Who really believes that, stripped of his congressional majority, Trump will suddenly be restrained?

For all his failures, the current occupant of the White House is less maimed and more popular than the denizens of Capitol Hill. A poll earlier this year put the approval rating for Congress at 10 per cent, which makes Trump’s 36 per cent job-approval score look rosy.

Americans despise Congress for being dysfunctional. Trump understands that, which is why he’s barely ‘worked with Congress’ at all in his second term. It’s too BORING, as he would say on social media. The only truly significant bicameral legislation Trump........

© The Spectator