Frank Bruni in the New York Times, August 27, 2026:

Trump strikes me not as an aberration who had the luck of flawed opponents, a feckless Democratic Party and a system in which the Electoral College rather than the popular vote decides presidential elections, which is, of course, how he won in 2016. He’s an expression of America’s id and a reflection of its uncorking. He rose as — and because — so many Americans stopped appreciating our blessings and started wallowing in our resentments.

When Donald Trump was first elected i suggested that he embodied America. My American friends insisted otherwise. Nice to see that someone else shares my view.

History will tell us if he was an aberration or the ugly truth.