5 June 2019updated 07 Jun 2021 5:04pm

Leader: The chill winds of isolation for Britain

LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 04: U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May leave 10 Downing Street for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office during the second day of his State Visit on June 4, 2019 in London, England. President Trump's three-day state visit began with lunch with the Queen, followed by a State Banquet at Buckingham Palace, whilst today he will attend business meetings with the Prime Minister and the Duke of York, before travelling to Portsmouth to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings.(Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Donald Trump’s state visit to Britain was a grim coda to Theresa May’s doomed premiership. The US presidency has not always been held by men of distinction and honour, but Mr Trump is surely its least qualified occupant. The leader of the world’s sole superpower has no record of political or military service and is ignorant of foreign affairs. Far from being moderated by the burden of office, Mr Trump has used his pulpit to indulge in posturing and abuse.

The rules-based international order that the president threatens has frequently been more of a myth than a reality (recall the Vietnam War, the 2003 Iraq War and the Bush administration’s non-ratification of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change). But Mr Trump is a unilateralist and nationalist.