Donald Trump won the US presidential election by portraying America as a nation under mortal threat from without and within. In his first act as president — his inaugural address — he showed that he intends to make this a core idea of not just his campaign but his presidency as well.

The speech did conclude with the notion that Americans are a single people, linked by shared values and unstoppable when united in a common cause. This has been a familiar theme at inaugurals at least since Lincoln. But it is likely that it is the first half of the speech that will be much remembered.

It will be hard to forget how the speech began: with a dark portrait of a once great country terribly misused by its own political class and by other nations. If one word captured the spirit of the speech, it was “protection”. “The establishment protected itself” when its job is to “protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies and destroying our jobs”. Ronald Reagan’s inaugural also revolved around the failures of government to preserve what was best in America. However, his hopeful tone was a world away from Mr Trump’s image of “American carnage”.