The only US president I’ve ever met and had a one-to-one chat with was Bill Clinton. But I also have previous – well, sort of – with the shy, retiring, meek and mild Donald Trump. One year ago, almost to the day, I warned in this magazine of the dangers of him imposing potentially ruinous tariffs on UK-built cars. By April, I outed him in the mag as “the most powerful car bloke on the planet”.

It really doesn’t matter to the reigning US President, or American or global ‘democracy’, if you adore or abhor Dicey Donald. Like it or not, there are no plans for him to vacate the White House. Also, there’s zero indication that his sometimes savage negotiating methods, unpredictable nature and pantomime villain act are to be watered down.

But, occasionally, there is another side to Tricky Trump. If he’s to be believed, and due largely to his anti-inflationary policies, US citizens are now safer, while enjoying lower healthcare costs, better job prospects, more lucrative pensions and greater spending power. His seemingly genuine concern for how much US motorists are spending is admirable.

He’s keen to remind them that a gallon of fuel costs less than $2 (£1.47) in certain places, while the average is still only $2.31 (£1.71). I know that a US gallon is slightly smaller than the UK’s, but there’s no getting away from it: we’re paying around three times more for our fuel than our US cousins. And in a rare act of unselfishness, the usually Difficult Don is reminding the UK Government that Britain is rich in traditional natural energy sources, so would do itself and its ripped off consumers a huge favour by adopting his “drill baby drill” ethos. Makes sense, right?

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