Momus, the god of satire and mockery, must be sitting on a cloud somewhere, pleased with his day’s work. President Trump, who had reportedly played down COVID, has acquired the germ.

And it was confirmed on The National Day of the People’s Republic of China.

The old Kung Flu is not so funny now, I’ll wager.

As we speak, he is probably stretched out on a bed of quadraplegic Hispanics in the Oval Office, caning some Dettol on the rocks and pinging ultraviolet beams into the presidential ringpiece.

You just know that when he recovers, one of several narratives will mushroom. On the one hand, a tale of a heroic battle and his defeat of COVID. Or on the other hand, confirmation that it was all overplayed, which vindicates his pisspoor leadership.

If he loses the election, it will be a convenient escape-hatch – forced to withdraw from campaigning at a critical point in the race.

So while Mr Trump has now realised that Hope is indeed contagious, where will the presidential race go from here? Well, it may well already be over.

While his supporters are fanfaring a victory in the first debate, any triumph was not about the strength of arguments, but about trashing the process. Trump just smashed up the joint and left the American public with a straight choice between a headbanging psycho and a blathering dimwit.

It’s largely the same in the UK.

For either candidate, it might now very well be a case of ‘down in one’. Both men were laid bare, and irrespective of what now follows, the US electorate knows for sure about its stark choices.

Biden himself stated this week: ‘Donald Trump is the worst President we’ve ever had’.

Joe, you might be the guy who changes that.