US President Donald Trump probably cannot leap through a hoop from the back of a galloping horse, or make people laugh at will, but he has done a convincing job of turning the White House into a circus nonetheless.

He has played skittles with his staff: if there is any room beneath the wheels of the bus under which he has most recently thrown Reince Priebus and Anthony Scaramucci, the next casualty is likely to be special counsel Robert Mueller, investigating Mr Trump's connections with Russia. According to the 'Washington Post', the betting on Capitol Hill is that Mr Trump is willing to ignore Congress, and go for Mr Mueller, by executive order, if necessary.

Those Russian inquiries became all the more contentious last night as it emerged that Mr Trump personally dictated a misleading statement about the nature of a meeting his son Donald Jr, and his then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, had with a group of Russians during the campaign. The statement wrongly claimed Trump Jr and a Russian lawyer had "primarily discussed a programme about the adoption of Russian children" when they met in June 2016. They insisted the meeting was "not a campaign issue at the time". But that was not true.

In the days that followed, multiple statements were issued from Mr Trump's son until he was forced to release the email chain in which he disclosed that the purpose of the meeting was to obtain opposition research from Russians. The significance of all this now for Mr Trump is that the US president is directly implicated in trying to cover up the Russia scandal. So much of Mr Trump's energy is now invested in fighting fires within the Oval Office, one shudders to imagine what might happen if he had to deal with an international crisis.

Mr Trump pledged to represent the people: but the foul-mouthed language and flagrant disregard for state protocol and diplomacy seen to date risks making his administration a laughing stock. Americans and the world deserved and expected a whole lot more.

Huge salaries a bit rich with RTÉ losing millions

They say the hardest part about being successful is finding someone to be happy for you. Yesterday, the salaries of the top 10 presenters in RTÉ were published. Top of the list was Ryan Tubridy, who earned €495,000. On that kind of income, one can probably afford a degree of nonchalance when it comes to begrudgers. But because the national broadcaster does not publish up-to-date salaries we do not know the most recent pay awards. Yesterday's figures apply to 2015.

The news that Ray D'Arcy picked up €400,000 and Joe Duffy €389,988 came after the station announced cuts as the financial position of the organisation deteriorates drastically. Losses at Montrose for 2016 could be as high as €20m. So, many will wonder can the station really afford such salaries? Many will also be troubled that only three women figure among the top 10 highest paid stars.

RTÉ has promised a review of 'role and gender equality' across the organisation following the revelation that news presenter Sharon Ní Bheoláin earns €60,000-€80,000 less than her co-anchor Bryan Dobson.

Director general Dee Forbes said that there were many factors in play when it came to determining pay. No doubt, there are: but six-figure salaries, and gender gaps do not sit well with an organisation partly funded by the licence fee and currently haemorrhaging millions.

Nonetheless, Ms Forbes is to be commended for reacting quickly to the gender pay controversy.

She has shown her appetite for reform by publishing the salaries and bringing in Kieran Mulvey to carry out the gender-equality review.

Irish Independent