Now, the right wing, particularly in America, have historically been well ahead of the liberals when it comes to personal responsibility: they rightly demand that individuals take responsibility for their own actions instead of blaming their actions on their upbringing or their addictions or their tendency to watch certain TV shows, listen to certain music or play certain video games.

Yet here is a Republican president declaring that if a mad man with a gun embarks on a rampage any time soon, it will be the judiciary’s, not the gunman’s, fault.

But back to my generous use of the word “strategy”: it was always going to be the case that America, with its remarkable and enviable system of constitutional and legal checks and balances, was never going to become Donald Trump’s plaything.

He and a frighteningly large number of his closest advisers probably aren’t even aware of that yet, but they’ll get the message sooner or later.

And when they do, when they are reluctantly forced to accept that executive orders and legislation must adhere to what’s written in the constitution, they will appeal to the people who elected them and, with palms outstretched and facing skywards, Trump will simply say, “See? I told you! The elites won’t even let me do all the things I promised I would do. But it’s not my fault, it’s theirs!”

Whether that approach will work in 2020 is questionable at this stage; there is surely a limit to the level of Oval Office tantrums the voters will tolerate without a commensurate improvement in their living standards and feeling of security. But I wouldn’t bet against it.

It’s too soon for Trump’s opponents to be celebrating, that’s for sure. This week has seen a string of defeats and we have witnessed the constitution working as it was intended – as a drag and a limiter to executive power. But there will be other days when other executive orders aren’t frustrated by the courts and are instead upheld.

That’s as it should be. That is also how the constitution is supposed to work, by allowing the government, provided it is behaving within the law, to get on with the job it was elected to do.

That is a system of which we in this country should be envious. The rule of law rules – even in Trump’s America.