Donald Trump’s domestic critics have often compared him to a mafia boss. James Comey, who Mr Trump fired as head of the FBI, said that dealing with the US president reminded him of his earlier career, “as a prosecutor against the mob”.
Mr Trump made his career in construction in New York and casinos in New Jersey, which may explain why his mannerisms seem strangely familiar to fans of The Godfather or The Sopranos.
But this is not merely about style. The president’s way of conducting foreign policy also seems to owe something to the mob. There is the emphasis on personal relations between bosses; the sense that only his own family members are completely trusted; the willingness to switch suddenly from warm words to threats and back again; the tendency to treat alliances as a form of protection racket — pay up, or we’ll stop protecting the neighbourhood; the preference for the offer you can’t refuse, rather than a genuine negotiation.