There is a kind of madness going on in Washington

SEVENTY DAYS TO GO: For most of the rest of the world Donald Trump is gone and Joe Biden is already being presidential and marking out his territory for taking over the White House on January 20. But in the US, and in particular in Washington DC, there is a kind of madness going on. Trump is back in the White House and seems to have drawn up a list of revenge sackings. Mark Esper, the defence secretary, was the first to go, or "terminated" as Trump kindly put it in his tweet. Now James Anderson, acting top dog on defence policy at the Pentagon, has resigned because he knew he was about to be pushed. The directors of the CIA and FBI are on borrowed time and who knows who else will be on the Trump chopping block. Will his new acting defence secretary, Christopher Miller, formerly director of the National Counterterrorism Center, be ordered to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by Christmas, and all the remaining troops in Syria and complete the reduction in troop numbers in Germany before January 19? He knew Esper would never have agreed to all these orders. But was there a deal with Miller? "You get all these troops out as I promised the American people and you can be defence secretary for the next 70 days." Miller was a hotshot at the NCTC but how on earth is he going to cope at the Pentagon with Trump breathing fire down his neck. Apart from the sackings, there is all the craziness about the election and the voting. The Republicans have finally given their backing to Trump's demand for legal action, and court action has begun. Will any judge in the land agree to overturn the count and put Trump back in the frame? Surely not. They would be arguing against the constitution. So we have two presidents operating at the same time, Trump fighting for survival and kicking out at anyone who doesn't show him absolute loyalty, and Joe Biden assuming the mantle of the president as president-elect and ushering in the post-Trump era. There is going to be a mighty clash at some point. I don't mean violent. I mean a political rumpus like you have never seen before.