The gathering degenerated into a yelling meltdown, during which our president declared that House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff “had some kind of a mental breakdown.”

Nobody muttered “takes one to know one.”

Most of the Republicans are just sort of curled up under their beds, quivering. Lately, the squad of across-the-board Trump defenders has dwindled down to people like Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida. Perhaps you remember Gaetz having argued that violence in America was not due to guns but to “illegal aliens.” This time he said that the impeachment process was “a kangaroo court and chairman Schiff is acting like a malicious Captain Kangaroo.”

Well, you take whoever you can get and Trump does not currently have a lot of universally enthusiastic troops. Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming called the American pullout from Syria a “catastrophic mistake.” Any daughter of Dick Cheney is going to be a person who can overlook a whole lot. When you lose her, you’re really down to … Matt Gaetz.

All this is going on while the White House is refusing to let Congress have access to administration officials who have information on the whistle-blower charges. Which, as of course you remember, stem from the time the man who believes he knows all about being careful on phone calls tried to get the Ukraine president to come up with some dirt on the foreign business dealings of Joe Biden’s son.

The man who later demanded that China investigate Hunter Biden’s business dealings there. Even China found that loony, a high standard for a country that can’t even manage to have a reasonable relationship with basketball teams.

And, of course, the president whose daughter and son-in-law have both been working for the White House while raking in tens of millions of dollars from their business dealings. Some came from the clothing Ivanka manufactured in places like … China.

Why would he bring up children making money abroad? This isn’t just a guy who makes stupid decisions. It’s a guy who’s off his rocker. Whose great pal is Rudy Giuliani, the talking head whose TV appearances can terrify toddlers. I’m not saying Trump is the only unbalanced person in this story. Just that he’s the only one who controls our nuclear weapons.