This week in the saga

Tuesday morning a row of electric cars is parked on the drive of the White House and the president of the United States sits in one and reads out the prices, because the man who runs the audit is losing money and the boycott has to be answered by the state. Friday he decides that the previous four years were run by a signature machine — the real president was whoever controlled the autopen — which is the first appearance of an idea that will still be running in December, when he voids ninety-two per cent of another man's presidency on the strength of it. That evening the strikes on the Red Sea begin, ordered in the first person and announced before the aircraft are home. Between them: an economy that will boom like never before, in nine words, with no argument attached. And then, on Monday afternoon, without ceremony, the date gets its name. April 2nd is Liberation Day for America. It is said three more times that week, then eleven times the next.