Without wishing to say, ‘I told you so’, I told you so. Trump’s acquittal was not certain but was certainly overwhelmingly likely on the evidence, or lack thereof.

Yet given the bonkers twists and turns of this comedic process, logic and good sense at times appeared discarded at the door. We might have thought that any court would have tossed out hearsay as effortlessly as take a breath, but that never happened on this watch. Senators at one stage voted 55-45 to have a debate on whether to admit evidence from a person who had heard an account of a telephone call between Trump and another party.

55 of them thought that would fly.

That smacked not just of desperation but also of abject farce. Even Judge Judy eviscerates buffoons who deign to have a punt with a splash of who shot John.

So bizarre that it was, one of the senators asked for confirmation on precisely what they had just voted on from the chairman of the court, who refused to clarify it.

Take a moment to compute all that because I really do not know where to start.

‘Hey, Nancy – Joe Stalin just called from the 1930s, and he wants his show trial back’.

As predicted, it did all came down to the words, their meaning, and the clear intention at the point in time at which they were uttered, and Trump’s rather shouty legal eagle did a rather stout job of keeping the discourse on that message. Furthermore, the montage of Democratic politicians using precisely the same ‘fight’ language in their campaigning effectively sealed the touchdown.

The whole impeachment charade was telling not for its desire for justice but for its shortcut objective to politically neutralise Trump. And that in itself revealed an embarrassing truth about US politics right now. The most effective way to send Trumpism into oblivion can be only to win the arguments. That is democracy; a half-arsed kangaroo court most certainly is not.

President 46 was conspicuous by his silence on this historical impeachment, but make no mistake, it would not have been birthed without his blessing. Now the responsibility for winning those arguments in the old-fashioned way falls to him.

Liberal America has however already placed itself firmly onto the back foot. With a country split on the legality of the election result, those who called foul will doubtless now be further emboldened by what will be positioned as an abortive witch-hunt.

There may be trouble ahead, and Mr Biden will have to face the music and dance.

But he can thank all his fellow clowns for not having taken Trump down cleanly on account of all the truly preposterous and outrageous stunts that the orange one had routinely pulled in plain sight.

Had they injected as much vim and vigour into the veins of meaningful opposition as they had into those of this junior school play, the Trump tenure would likely not have wriggled past 2017.

In Irving Berlin’s words, that would have been paying the bill while they still had the chance.

Now the fiddlers have fled, this disastrous caper will provide the Trump cause with enough steam to take the fight of their perceived injustice to 2024, and possibly beyond.

By then, centrist America will be without the moon, humming a different tune and then/There may be teardrops to shed.