GOODNESS, Ruth Davidson, what a suspicious mind you have. Perhaps it is hardly surprising given some of her colleagues’ love of a good plot, not all of them in novels, but the leader of the Scottish Conservatives has learned to look beyond announcements and consider whether all is as it first appears.

Take, for example, her reaction to the news that Donald Trump will today release all remaining classified material, some thousands of pages, relating to the assassination of President John F Kennedy. Just for a little while, all those birthday wishes of conspiracy theorists will come true. 

Ms Davidson, however, has other things to ponder. Is it wrong, she tweeted, to wonder what story is about to drop that Mr Trump needs to distract the world from?

It is an understandable assumption, but probably incorrect, if for no other reason than the President is frequently in need of something to take the public’s attention away from another set of bad headlines. If he dumped vast amounts of classified material every time that happened the CIA vaults would be empty by next Tuesday.

In reality, Mr Trump’s method of coping is rather more mundane. With his legislative agenda stymied by the courts and Congress, and tax cuts still a work in progress, the President does not have much in the way of achievements he can point to, but he is a champ when it comes to rolling with the punches. 

In the last week alone he has been pummelled by two of his predecessors, Barack Obama and George W Bush, and criticised by an Army widow who accused Mr Trump of forgetting her husband’s name when the president telephoned with his condolences. Mr Trump denied this. 

Any one of those blows could knock a president off his feet for a few days or more. Not Mr Trump. Even so, being called “utterly untruthful” by one of your own has to hurt, does it not?

That haymaker came from Republican senator Bob Corker, who had previously compared the Trump White House to an adult day care centre. Unsurprisingly, Mr Corker announced last month that he would not be fighting the midterm elections next year. 

On Tuesday he was joined by a colleague, Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, in being mad as heck with the Trump leadership and resolved not to take it any more. “Reckless, outrageous, and undignified behaviour has become excused and countenanced as ‘telling it like it is’ when it is actually just reckless, outrageous, and undignified,” said Mr Flake on the floor of the Senate.

It is fair to say that Mr Trump has taken the looming loss of Mr Corker and Mr Flake well, saying they were not standing again because they knew they would lose. Far from feeling any heat from critics within his party, the President described his meeting this week with Republican senators in general as a “love fest” complete with standing ovations.

How much does it matter in a presidential system whether the Republicans love or loathe The Donald? His critics in the party could not stop him winning the nomination and then the presidency, and many of them swiftly changed their opinion of him when he did, so why should trouble in the ranks, particularly from two such well-known critics such as messrs Corker and Flake, be anything to worry about? 

For Mr Trump and his cast iron sense of his own adequacy it may not be. But for those wondering who might be coming off the production line after him, the future direction of the Republican party is a matter of increasing concern. Early as it might seem, with his presidency not even a year old, the race is on to shape the post-Trump era. This week’s ructions are just the beginning.

One man devoting a lot of time to thinking about such things is Steve Bannon, Mr Trump’s former chief strategist. Mr Bannon was not the happiest bunny in the warren when the boss let him go. “The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over,” he said on leaving the White House in August. 

Yet he soon bounced back, declaring his intention to “go to war for Trump” against his opponents. It might have sounded like so much bluster to cover his blushes, but the Bannon cv, and his wealth, suggest he is not an operator who should be underestimated. Like some one man Momentum of the American right, he has told Mr Trump’s Republican opponents to get with the programme or get out of the way. His reaction to Mr Flake’s announcement was to put the fear of being ousted into others. “Our movement will defeat you in primaries or force you to retire,” he said. “The days of establishment Republicans who oppose the people’s America First agenda are numbered.”

It is pantomime villain stuff to be sure, but it plays well among Trump supporters. You can also see why it is a message the president himself might approve. There you are, presenting yourself to voters as the ultimate deal maker and swamp-drainer-in-chief. Unlike those Washington insiders, you are going to get things done. As luck would have it, your party retains control of Congress. 

But then reality intrudes. Nothing happens the way you promised it would, from scrapping Obamacare to blanket entry bans. Either what you pledged was wrong, stupid, or otherwise far more difficult to achieve than you thought, or you simply don’t have the right people on your side in Congress after all. So change them. You don’t hire them, but voters in the  midterms might be more inclined to fire them if presented with an alternative.

How successful that strategy will be is up to voters. Either Republicans fall in line with Mr Trump or they follow the example set by the likes of Senator John McCain and try to rescue the party from lurching ever further to the right. 

For who knows where that might lead. Those who think Mr Trump is the worst thing to happen to American politics in a long time should cast a glance at some of the characters around him. Now there’s a thought from which we could all use some distraction.