I’ve never met Donald Trump, but I have come across his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared. I met them this summer at a media conference in Aspen organised by the great US network anchor and renaissance man Charlie Rose. It’s fair to say the event was not stuffed with Trump supporters, and there were a few crass barbs aimed at Ivanka. But she and her husband handled it all with great dignity. On the first night, I was heading up to my hotel room when I saw the two of them having a drink at the bar alone, and they asked me to join them. They were a serious, intelligent and modest couple. The first TV debate was just days away and I asked them what Donald was doing to prepare for it. They told me he was doing nothing. He had dismissed all attempts of theirs to coach or advise him, because her father thought that the public would see he was scripted and his appeal was precisely that he wasn’t. I realised then that the political rules I grew up with were being rewritten. In 2017, Britain, and the rest of the world, will have to get used to the unscripted President.
This is an extract from George Osborne's Notebook, which can be found in the Christmas issue of the Spectator