We know that David Lynch isn't one for convention and received wisdom, but declaring that Donald Trump “could go down as one of the greatest presidents in history” is up there with recasting David Bowie’s part from Fire Walk With Me to a kettle in the ‘oh, mate’ stakes.

Speaking to the Guardian, Lynch said: "[Trump] could go down as one of the greatest presidents in history because he has disrupted the thing so much. No one is able to counter this guy in an intelligent way."

Lynch doesn’t watch much John Oliver, clearly – he doesn’t really watch films either, according to the rest of the interview – and he’s less than impressed with the United States’ politicians at large.

"Our so-called leaders can’t take the country forward, can’t get anything done. Like children, they are. Trump has shown all this."

Leaving aside the fact that it’s hard not to read the phrase “like children, they are” in a West Country accent, Lynch didn’t give Trump his clear approval but hoped that another outsider might make a better job of the presidency having seen Trump shake things up.

Lynch, who has previously backed Republicans Ronald Reagan and Gary Johnson as well as Democrats Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders, said he is, “not really a political person, but I really like the freedom to do what you want to do."

Lynch is about to release a typically genre-defying biography-come-autobiography with journalist Kristine McKenna, which describes itself in its prologue as “a person having a conversation with his own biography”.