After Trump and Brexit, is this the end for the Anglo-Saxon west? | Timothy Garton Ash

Some welcome the prospect of decline in Britain and the US. They should be careful what they wish for

• Timothy Garton Ash is a Guardian columnist

‘“You must be from England,” says the shop assistant at the CVS drugstore in Menlo Park, California. When I mention Donald Trump, he says: “Well, don’t get me started on how things are going on your side of the Atlantic. Your Mrs May there in Downing Street is being [expletive deleted] by the bureaucrats in Brussels …”

I can only agree. Having jumped from the Brexit frying pan into the Trump fire, I find myself comparing the two and wondering which is worse. The transatlantic difference is, in the first place, between Britain’s madness of the thing and America’s madness of the man. Theresa May may be wooden, rigid and out of her depth, but compared to Trump she looks like Mother Teresa.

Related: Dunkirk reveals the spirit that has driven Brexit: humiliation | Rafael Behr

Related: Hardliners won’t like this soft Brexit plan. Tough – we have little choice | Simon Jenkins

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