THE cacophony of hatred and vilification launched against President Donald Trump by the US political elite began even before the man sat down for the first time in the Oval Office. And it has not ceased since then, even for a moment.

Many of the inhabitants of the Capitol Hill “swamp” that Trump promised to drain loathe their elected president, to the point of distraction. The boom box of social media produces an endless litany of often-violent abuse condemning every little thing Trump says or does. But how substantial is this self-appointed jury? Does its constant screaming hubbub really represent the feelings of the majority of Americans? For sure Trump is boorish, unsubtle and undiplomatic. He refuses to play by Washington’s long-standing political rules. Some of his more inept sallies on his favorite Twitter platform have embarrassed even his most loyal supporters. But are his demerits so great that they justify the political establishment’s rabid determination from the get-go to destroy his presidency?

The first major sally, led by the Democrats, was that Trump had colluded with the Kremlin to win the White House. Millions of dollars and man hours were expended on disruptive investigations. They uncovered shady dealings by some of the President’s men, but they did not stand up the key allegation. In the end the main enquiry by Special Prosecutor Robert Müller could find no grounds on which to charge Trump with a crime.

Now the Democrats are trying again, seeking to impeach their President over allegations that he misused his power to try and dig dirt on Joe Biden, his potential Democrat presidential rival next year. Trump has announced the White House will boycott the inquiry and rolled out his normal protest that it is all fake news. He is of course on risky political ground. His refusal to cooperate with the three Democrat-led House committees will inevitably be claimed by his detractors to be an indication of guilt.

But how will this latest confrontation be taken by the ordinary American voter? Trump is not alone in being a gaffe-prone president. It was said unkindly of President Gerald Ford that he could not chew gum and walk at the same time. George W. Bush regularly massacred the English language. Whatever they may think of Trump’s personality, he is their president, the commander-in-chief of their armed forces and the man they chose to run their country. His protectionist trade wars, his disdain for political correctness and his challenge to the environmentalist argument that climate change is entirely man-made, have struck a popular chord, as he undoubtedly hoped they would.

The spectacle of the establishment and much of the media, to say nothing of a deafening minority on what is often nowadays “antisocial media” baying at the heels of their leader, and using every move possible to frustrate the policies on which he was elected, is not in the lest bit edifying. It looks as if in order to bring down the man Trump, the establishment does not care what damage it does to the nation’s body politic and its institutions, not least of the Office of the President of the United States. Put bluntly, vitriolic bipartisan rivalries are endangering the US political system, once held up as a shining example of democracy.