If a mother tells her son not to touch a hot stove, and the kid does it anyway, and gets burnt, this isn’t irony. It’s the behaviour we expect from a young boy, and the result we all know will happen. Trump was told by many people that mask-wearing and social distancing would inhibit the spread of the disease; he ignored the advice, and the expected result has occurred. When the subjects are a young boy and his mother, there is a lesson to be imparted when he burns his fingers. But what do we do when the young boy is a septuagenarian, and incapable of learning? Someone who is indolent, resentful, reckless and seemingly incapable of experiencing empathy?

US election: How Trump infantilised the presidency and infected the White House