Desmond King
Expecting to serve 10 years in the job, James Comey, head of the FBI, was despatched after three. Even discounting the Trumpian theatrics, this was a dramatic moment, because the FBI has been investigating contacts between the president’s campaign team and the Russians, whom intelligence agencies have concluded did meddle in last November’s election, for the benefit of Trump. Also, an alleged request for extra resources for the FBI probe had just been made, which hardly suggests an investigation that was going nowhere. The president, in other words, can reasonably be painted as sacking the policeman who was probing his electoral win.