This is the true Trump.

Fort Dodge was the inevitable meltdown many of us were anticipating far sooner than now. It’s hard even for a showman like Trump to fake for long what you are not.

In a political campaign, as in a courtship, people try to win favor by displaying their most attractive, intelligent, talented persona. But as we all know, you can only consistently project your best self for so long. Eventually, the idealized “you” becomes worn out from the effort, and the real “you” puts on the sweats and grabs the remote. In romance, I put it at about two years.

In politics, the courtship is necessarily, if disastrously, faster — speed dating for the future of humankind.

Trump got tired. His courtship self was the one who insulted only his opponents and women. True Trump can’t stand anyone and wonders why he’s wasting time with all these clueless clucks who don’t have enough sense to recognize a charlatan when they see one.