WHEN to say enough is enough? Donald Trump’s toxic drooling in defeat surely demands a swift intervention by the Republican party.

Not only is the President befouling a mass democratic event - almost 150m people voting ought to be a cause for celebration - he is staining the country and its system of government.

On current trajectories, when the votes are in he will have lost and lost decisively. But given his record and temperament, he will try to cling on if others fail to stand up to him.

It is an abject and disturbing sight, both on a personal and a political level.

The Republican party has to decide what to do. The election arithmetic means it cannot sustain him. The key question is whether to repudiate him once he’s out the White House.

Will it countenance him trying for a comeback in 2024, for example?

It has happened once before.

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Democrat Grover Cleveland served non-consecutive terms after winning the presidency in 1884 and 1892. He also won the popular vote in 1888, but Republican Benjamin Harrison won the electoral college and so became the filling in a Cleveland sandwich.

To guard against something similar with Mr Trump, the Republicans must actively ensure he never darkens their door again. If they don’t, he will try to complete his take over of the party, and carry on degrading the country.

As he is clearly irredeemable, an irreversible break would be needed. That goes for the whole Trump family.

For if Mr Trump can’t be President again, he may very well try to rule via his children instead, with one of his sons or more likely his favoured daughter Ivanka out front.

Of course, as with Vladimir Putin, this would be a cosmetic arrangement.

You may recall Putin was Prime Minister of Russia from 2008 to 2012 while Dmitry Medvedev was sort of President, but then, as now, there was never any doubt who was the boss.

If one of the Trump clan ran for president, there would be a nod and a wink from the old man to his fans that he would still be in the picture. Or, in Mr Trump’s absence of shame, he might just come straight out and say it. Vote for the kid, get the dad.

Even if he were too infirm or had gone to the great golf course in the sky, a Trump dynasty would continue to channel the malignant personality he has imprinted on it, just as he has been the legacy of his sociopathic father.

The thought of American life being dominated by such an odd, remote, dysfunctional bunch is chilling.

To avoid that long-term prospect, the Republicans must therefore exile the Trumps as soon as they can. If they allow the family even a toehold in the party’s affairs, Mr Trump or his proxies will be back soon enough.

The events of this week have been on a grand-scale and extreme.

But they have also reminded me of much smaller, local concerns. So small they include Douglas Ross.

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The Scottish Tory leader appears to have been waging a one-man war on Boris Johnson of late, nipping the Prime Minister over universal credit, the Government’s handling of Brexit undermining the Union, and the inept extension of the furlough scheme.

Given Mr Johnson’s unpopularity with Scots, and his knack for advancing independence, it is no wonder Mr Ross wants some distance.

As my colleague Mike Settle reported in these pages yesterday, the Scottish Tories are also keen for Mr Johnson to stay well away from their forthcoming election campaign.

Again, understandable with two new polls showing Scottish Labour (remember them?) overtaking the Tories at Holyrood in 2021.

The Johnson effect seems a more probable cause than the heady animal magnetism of Richard Leonard.

But like Mr Ross taking pops at the PM, this won’t do the trick.

If Mr Johnson were missing entirely from the 2021 campaign, his absence would only draw attention to itself.

Indeed, this happened during last year’s general election.

Despite Mr Johnson booming around England proclaiming the vital importance of getting Brexit done, north of the border Jackson Carlaw and Ruth Davidson made speeches in which they mentioned neither the Prime Minister or his central policy.

It made them look weak and worried, and rightly so. They went on to lose seven of their 13 MPs.

The public looked at Mr Johnson and they looked at the Scottish Tories and they saw largely the same thing.

Any notion of distance between Mr Ross and Mr Johnson is a political conceit that carries little weight at the ballot box. Mr Ross is shackled to the PM, and always to his disadvantage.

To many Scots, Mr Johnson, like President Trump, is irredeemable.

There is no turning the corner.

There is only the sense of always waiting for the next mistake, the next scandal, the next insult to Scotland.

And if not Mr Johnson, it’s one of his sub-par cabinet loyalists getting it wrong, like Scottish Secretary Alister Jack yesterday and his loopy nonsense about no Indyref2 for 40 years.

Choreographed spats won’t help Mr Ross at this Holyrood election or any other, only a decisive break and a stand-alone Scottish party.

The Scottish Tory leader will have to choose whether he wants to stick with the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, or whether he wants power at Holyrood. He can’t have both.