When Donald Trump left office three years ago, still huffing, puffing and plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, the leaders of most of America’s biggest corporations were only too happy to see the back of him. They wore their moral outrage like a badge of honour. Sure, they had conveniently put aside their earlier scruples about Mr Trump’s suitability for the White House, bought off by generous corporate and personal tax cuts in 2017. Sure, many had cravenly turned a blind eye to his torching of environmental rules in support of a broad-brush regulatory bonfire. But his attempts to subvert American democracy, and the storming of the Capitol by his supporters on January 6th 2021, were a step too far.

       With unusual unity, they huffed and puffed back. Manufacturers called the riots a “disgusting episode". The Business Roundtable, a lobby group for big companies, called on Mr Trump to “put an end to the chaos". Some prominent firms pledged not to provide financial support to the 147 Republican lawmakers who had refused to certify Mr Trump’s defeat.

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