Hail to the king

WHEN DONALD TRUMP appeared at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, the party’s establishment was still shell-shocked by his nomination. Yet its politico, donor and lobbyist members consoled themselves with the thought that, given his probable loss to Hillary Clinton, they would soon have a chance to reunify their party in furious opposition, and reclaim it. While a few senior Republicans—including the governor of Ohio, John Kasich—condemned Mr Trump, most merely gave the convention a miss. Mr Trump’s main defeated rival, Senator Ted Cruz, addressed the gathering but did not endorse him. Seemingly by default, Mr Trump filled the vacuum with a cast of relatives, hyper-partisans and sycophantic opportunists.

Four years on, it turns out that that wasn’t by default. Half of this week’s RNC headliners were named Trump (including the president’s four adult children, wife and daughter-in-law). And though other members of the 2016 crew were unavailable, their replacements hit the same notes of hysterical fear and adulation. In place of Mike Flynn and Chris Collins, two prominent cheerleaders since convicted of crimes, Mr Trump employed attack-dogs such as Congressman Matt Gaetz, a Floridian mini-Trump—who warned viewers that Democrats “will disarm you, empty the prisons, lock you in your home and invite MS-13 to live next door.”