“The thing about him,” Kennedy tells me, “is that there’s forward energy. He’s like a horse with blinders at the Kentucky Derby. If there’s another horse in the way, knock it out and ride the rail. I listened to him, on immigration, on draining the swamp, on lobbyists, and I liked that. As I recall, it was ‘We the people’ not ‘We the empowered.’ ”

Immigration was an important factor in Kennedy’s lurch from Obama to Trump. While he favors the Dreamers program, which shielded some young immigrants from deportation, he says, “There are too many people running around who have no business being here.” America First was important: Too many working Americans have lost jobs to unbalanced trade deals.

A little over a year in, Kennedy remains a fervent Trump supporter. He insists that he has no illusions. Trump is “brash,” a “rogue.” He’s also “a fighter, a scrapper, the kind of guy who says ‘damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.’ ” He’s proving his stamina against the naysayers “who hate the man with a vileness that is very un-American.” He’s draining Washington “of people with contempt for the people they represent.” The tax cut will be “beneficial.”