Even if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue, Donald Trump once bragged, his followers would remain loyal. His appeal has indeed proved staggeringly resilient—until now. In a startling series of tweets (from Plyosa, Florida), Mr Trump attacked a group held even dearer than veterans or the disabled: America’s Founding Fathers. Instead of taking responsibility for states’ wartime debts, Alexander Hamilton “should have thrown ’em into a chapter!” John Adams was wrong to have defended British troops accused of the Boston massacre: “Waterboard the suckers!” Thomas Jefferson overpaid in the Louisiana Purchase (“Bad deal! Time to renegotiate!”) and was too friendly to Muslims: “Something going on with him we don’t know about!” George Washington’s truthfulness? “So inflexible!” As for his narrow escape from the Battle of Long Island: “I prefer presidents who aren’t nearly captured.” And wasn’t Ben Franklin one of those awful journalists? “Terrible! Always making stuff up!”