It’s an open secret that even before Darroch’s emails and his subsequent resignation, Boris had wanted him gone: Sir Kim has made himself infamous in Washington for telling people in private that Brexit is a disaster. To have a UK ambassador undermining UK government policy in Washington is, to put it mildly, unhelpful. And the British embassy in Washington is just too important: the potential economic, security and strategic disadvantages of being on non-speakers with America’s leadership are unthinkable.

Boris isn’t by nature a pushover, which is one of the reasons that he and Trump will get along. And he seems to understand the president’s mentality: play nice, and Donald returns the favor. The two men have a chemistry that goes beyond their unusual hairstyles and appreciation of younger women. Both grasp that a profound shift is taking place in politics, one that has propelled people like them to power. They also sense, in the way that macho beasts often do, a certain destiny in each other. Trump is possibly the last great Anglophile president: recall his impossibly smug-yet-sweet face as he visited Buckingham Palace last month. Trump likes Britain, Brexit and Boris; it’s that simple.

Boris, for his part, was born in New York, and only gave up his American passport for tax reasons — something Trump can understand. He’s a Churchill enthusiast and therefore an Atlanticist in outlook. He’s always preferred America’s stress on national unity (e pluribus unum) to the fragmented federalism of the European Union.