His poll numbers aren’t too shabby, either. At the beginning of the summer Hillary Clinton enjoyed a double-digit lead. That’s now shrunk to just one or two points. The view in the battleground states, where the election will be decided, is complicated. Objections to Trump – his remarks about Mexicans and umpteen business scandals – have helped Clinton pull ahead in normally Republican-leaning states like Georgia and Florida.

But fascination with Trump – his growing appeal among the white working-class – has elevated him in states that Democrats have won in the past, such as Indiana, Maine and Ohio. Every cloud over Trump comes with a silver lining. Insulting one ethnic group causes a bounce among another. It’s a kind of Right-wing yin and yang.