It was less than three months ago that Donald Trump said he would “take a look” at deporting Elon Musk after his former bosom buddy claimed Trump would have lost the 2024 election without him and that the real reason the president wasn’t releasing the Epstein files was that he was in them. But at the memorial for the rightwing activist Charlie Kirk last weekend, it was as if their very public bust-up had never happened: the two men sat next to each other for a while chatting, smiling, and shaking hands, with the US president even giving the world’s richest man a couple of fatherly pats on the knee and thigh.

“Elon came over and said hello,” Trump told reporters after the service. “I thought it was nice?.?.?.?we had a little conversation.” Musk — who had unfollowed Kirk on X during the spat with Trump — posted a photo of the president and himself captioned “For Charlie”. (Sure, Elon.)

This wasn’t the only show of unity on display at the State Farm Stadium in Arizona, where a crowd of around 90,000 had gathered while another estimated 20mn people or so watched on cable or online. Neither was this the kind of unity we could put down to mourning for the death of a young man in his prime. Because in truth this was not so much a memorial service as it was a full-blown political rally — one that lasted for more than five hours and was replete with singalongs, grand showbiz entrances and huge cheers for eulogies that often sounded more like campaign speeches.