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 The Times

Trump is better for Europe than Obama

Yes, he is a reckless, ignorant bully but this president has done more for our security than his much-lauded predecessor

Donald Trump’s visit next year is already prompting a frenzy of self-righteous indignation. Politicians are competing to explain how much they dislike the American president and how firmly they will boycott him. Mr Trump epitomises everything the British chatterati dislike. He is foul-mouthed, incompetent, lecherous, reckless, thin-skinned and doltishly ignorant to boot. In every imaginable respect, in fact, he compares deplorably with his articulate, cosmopolitan and scrupulous predecessor.

That approach is based on abundant evidence. It echoes in Paris, Brussels, Berlin and many other capitals of liberal-minded conventional wisdom. But as you head further east, another picture emerges. Startlingly for those who believe that Mr Trump is a Russian puppet, his administration is actually rather popular in the countries that live in the Kremlin’s shadow.…