DONALD Trump began the year by being portrayed as a not terribly bright brat given to going to bed at 6.30pm with a burger. Now a former FBI director has likened the US president to a mafia boss. Poor Donald, labelled a giant toddler or Tony Soprano and it’s only April. By Christmas it will be Dumbo and Voldemort.

The mob boss gibe comes in a book by James Comey, A Higher Loyalty, which is published next Tuesday.

Mr Comey, who was fired by the US commander-in-chief last year, sets the tone early on with this description of meeting the new President in the flesh: “His face appeared slightly orange, with bright white half-moons under his eyes where I assume he placed small tanning goggles.”

At a meeting to brief the President on sensational claims being made about his links to Russia, Mr Comey was disturbed at the way spin doctors are talking politics while government officials, supposed to be neutral, were still present. Suddenly, a lightbulb went on above Mr Comey’s head (not literally, unless Melania walked in and told them all off for sitting in gloom or, worse, with the overhead light on).

“Holy crap, they are trying to make each of us an ‘amica nostra’ – a friend of ours,” writes Mr Comey. “To draw us in. As crazy as it sounds, I had the feeling that, in the blink of an eye, the president-elect was trying to make us all part of the same family.”

Another encounter leaves him similarly shaken. “I once again was having flashbacks to my earlier career as a prosecutor against the Mob. The silent circle of assent. The boss in complete control. The loyalty oaths. The us-versus-them worldview. The lying about all things, large and small, in service to some code of loyalty that put the organisation above morality and the truth.”

Later, Mr Trump’s demand for loyalty is likened to “Sammy the Bull’s Cosa Nostra induction ceremony”.

If Mr Comey seems to have an obsession with the mafia he is not alone. From books and films to television shows, many a fortune has been made charting the goings on among everyday well-connected folk. Much to the irritation, it should be said, of millions of law-abiding Italian-Americans who find the stereotyping grossly insulting. I know that because it, er, came up in an episode of The Sopranos, the capo di tutti capi of television Mob dramas and one of my all time favourites alongside The Godfather, The Godfather II, Goodfellas … and too many others to list here.

Who knows, the President might even be flattered to be compared to a Mob boss such as Tony Soprano. Family-oriented, tough, resourceful, passionate, takes care of business, kind to animals, lover of good food and wines, charming, funny; what is not to love?

Maybe Donald, like Tony, has a mugshot of the young Sinatra on the wall behind his desk. I doubt there would be any equivalent of the Bada Bing strip club, though; its late hours would surely clash with the President’s early bedtimes. As for The Donald seeing a DC equivalent of Dr Melfi, are you crazy?

There is the other side of the mafia, of course, the lying, cheating, murdering, corruption-sowing, generally horrific side. But even when that is exposed, when members are shown in documentaries, court cases, and newspapers to be no more than thugs wreaking havoc in society, their allure somehow remains. The fictional portrayals (even though they, too, often show the mafia in a grim, seedy light) simply exert too strong a pull on our imaginations.

It remains to be seen whether Mr Comey’s comparisons will help or hinder the President. An interview with Mr Comey will air on ABC tomorrow, headlines to follow on Monday morning. The sit-down with George Stephanopoulos is being billed as a sensational, no-holds barred television encounter, just to distinguish it from the last sensational, no-holds barred television encounter (and still Mr Trump remains untouchable).

Team Trump has already begun the fightback against Mr Comey, zeroing in on the Mob references as a vulnerable spot. Sean Hannity of Fox News, for one, is outraged at the comparison. “No wonder Comey was so bad at running the bureau: he can’t tell a mob boss from a duly elected leader of the free world,” he fumed. That Mr Hannity then tumbles from the moral high ground by reversing the attack and laying into what he calls “the Clinton crime family” just goes to show how irresistible those mob comparisons can be.

As those other Jersey boys might say, whaddya gonna do?