“When he promised to put America first in his inaugural speech, Donald Trump drew on a slogan with a long and sinister history – a sign of what was to follow in his presidency”

A 1927 Ku Klux Klan parade in Washington DC. Photograph: Buyenlarge/Getty Images

“‘Sadly, the American dream is dead,’ Donald Trump proclaimed when he announced his candidacy for president of the United States. It seemed an astonishing thing for a candidate to say; people campaigning for president usually glorify the nation they hope to lead, flattering voters into choosing them. But this reversal was just a taste of what was to come, as he revealed an unnerving skill at twisting what would be negative for anyone else into a positive for himself.

“By the time he won the election, Trump had flipped much of what many people thought they knew about the US on its head.”

Read this opinion column in its entirety at The Guardian