One of the great advantages of the American system is that anybody can be appointed to the Cabinet: in theory at least, that can make it more meritocratic.

In Britain, only members of Parliament can join Theresa May’s Government; in America, the formal separation between executive and legislative branches means that Donald Trump can propose anybody he wants. They don’t have to be members of the House or Senate or have ever held any elected position. In some cases, Trump has gone for traditional politicians; but in other cases he has decided to appoint business leaders, retired generals and others.

In itself, this is hardly original: George Bush appointed Hank Paulson, a former Goldman boss, to be Treasury Secretary, and Bill Clinton did the same with Robert Rubin, a former co-senior partner at the firm. But Trump has gone even further in tapping into Wall Street: this has wrong-footed his critics who thought he would be unable to attract anybody to his administration, and then assumed that he would only hire rabid populists, but are now complaining that he is recruiting too many top-class, elite business leaders.

The simple truth is that Trump is hiring in the same way that a top CEO would behave, rather than a conventional politician: he is recruiting people who have reached the top of their game, as well as trusted loyalists.

This being America, however, there are strict constitutional checks and balances: proposed cabinet appointees need to go through a gruelling confirmation process, and some may fail, forcing the President to go back to the drawing board.

Whatever one thinks of Trump, he has been able to sign up some very big names to his administration; and by and large they look as if they will, if confirmed, unleash a neo-Reaganite revolution on America. For those of us who thought that supply-side economics was on the way out, this is a remarkable comeback for the ideas of low tax and deregulation.

Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs chief information officer turned hedge fund manager, private equity investor, banking entrepreneur and film financier, has been appointed Treasury Secretary; Wilbur Ross, a 79-year old former Rothschilds banker turned billionaire entrepreneur, is the new Commerce Secretary; and Todd Ricketts, co-owner of the Chicago Cubs and a scion of the TD Ameritrade billionaire family, will be Deputy Commerce Secretary. These men are all committed to a smaller state, lower and simpler taxes, fewer rules and a reduction in moral hazard.