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America’s barbarians inside the gates

No ideological code can fully capture US President Donald Trump’s actions.

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US President Donald Trump's caprice makes it impossible for his explainers to keep pace, says the writer.

US President Donald Trump’s caprice makes it impossible for his explainers to keep pace, says the writer.

PHOTO: BLOOMBERG

Edward Luce

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Historical sensibility tells us it is the barbarians who storm the gates. In today’s America, it is the other way round. Inside the citadel, the hordes are incinerating America’s traditions of law, civility and restraint. The civic-minded cry in the wilderness.

Measured by the old era’s conventions, US President Donald Trump’s bonfire is only a quarter of the way through. Like so much else – the US Institute of Peace, the Kennedy Center, the Versailles-style White House ballroom,

other people’s Nobel Prizes

– Mr Trump is rebranding the US as his own. As America prepares to commemorate its 250th anniversary, the republic is flirting with its own funeral.

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