Donald Trump is a despot and the US is a democracy. These things can be true simultaneously but not indefinitely. There is now deadlock in the struggle between a president who would be king and a constitution drafted in repudiation of monarchy. But it is a battle to the death. Tyranny will either break the spirit of the republic or be quelled by it.

Since the US is the world’s paramount power, the outcome of this contest has epic consequences for countries, such as the UK, that depend on Washington for security.

Trump’s spiteful denigrations of Keir Starmer and other European leaders for their reluctance to join the bombing of Iran demonstrate the impossibility of partial alignment with a leader who wants total submission. The US president’s only recognised source of authority is himself. When asked earlier this year if there is anything that might constrain his actions around the world, he said: “My own morality, my own mind.”

To go along with such a man is to set law aside and submit to his will. That is the choice the Republican party made in domestic US politics and it is the only offer on the table to allies abroad.

The European response has been a confused mix of acquiescence and evasive action. Flattery has been deployed to cajole Trump into renewing Nato vows of mutual assistance and to forestall a total betrayal of Ukraine. Defence budgets have been rewritten to prove that the continent can pay its way in the alliance and thereby dissuade him from withdrawing the lion’s share.

There is a strategic rationale here. Preparation for the nightmare scenario – Europe left to fend for itself against a belligerent Russia – makes that outcome less likely because the increased........

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