One of the things that President Trump is known for is his lack of artistic taste. Of course it’s considered élitist and snobbish to draw attention to this, which is why so few of his critics do. But it’s difficult to ignore it entirely: his gilding of everything in the White House, for example; his projected belle époque ballroom; and the ugly caged fight he is planning for the South Lawn of the White House in a few weeks’ time, in commemoration either of his 80^th birthday, or of the 250^th anniversary of the Republic – it’s not clear which.

A few years ago I published an article about an early 19^th-century Scottish economic liberal and philistine called Samuel Laing, in which I gently suggested that, in general terms, capitalism and art might be essentially incompatible. That’s what Laing believed – he was actually proud of his philistinism. (The article is reprinted in my Britain After Brexit.)

Donald Trump’s main domestic significance, in my view, and which I may expand on later, is that he represents and personifies the latest stage in the evolution of American capitalism. Which of course makes perfect sense of his philistinism.