Consider some headlines from the serious press over the past year. “Why Americans should fight Donald Trump’s isolationism”. “Trump’s Neo-isolationism won’t work”. “How the GOP embraced the world — and then turned away”. Another, “What Trump calls nationalism looks more like isolationism”, at least argues the case, instead of supposing it as a premise.

This case — that the US is shunning the world — is seconded by a former president. George W Bush flags the “dangers of isolation”. The foreign minister of France worries about “retreat”. These critics know the history they are slyly evoking. Insularity predates the republic, held up its participation in the second world war and saw in the millennium with the presidential campaigns of Pat Buchanan. American quietists doubt that Providence went to all the trouble of gifting them bounteous land, shielded by oceans from the world’s vicissitudes, only for governments to quest abroad.

If Mr Trump ever belonged in this paleoconservative lineage, he has long since broken from it. Of course, caprice, aggression and technical incompetence mar his foreign policy. He has goaded allies and succoured enemies. He is on his fourth national security adviser. Such is the fragmentation of his team, one of these days a cheeky European will wonder aloud who to call if they wish to speak to America.