Marco Rubio offers his Trump-crazed party a glint of hope

The episode that encapsulated the Republican establishment’s capitulation to Donald Trump had been planned as a repudiation of him. It was when Senator Marco Rubio, in a bid to salvage his sinking candidacy in the 2016 Republican primaries, suggested that Mr Trump had a small penis. Formerly known as a high-minded conservative, Mr Rubio also mocked the Republican front-runner’s hair and “orange” skin. “Donald Trump likes to sue people,” he told a crowd in Virginia, ahead of the round of primaries that more or less sealed Mr Trump’s capture of the Republican nomination. “He should sue whoever did that to his face.”