What was dispiriting about Donald Trump’s taunt to four congresswomen to go back to the “places from which they came” was that the US was always the country where, once you became an American, it did not matter where you came from.

Your name could be Schwarzenegger, Kissinger or Brzezinski. The moment you were an American citizen, that is what you were, with the same rights to live, complain or hold high office (except the presidency) as anyone else. And if you were born in the US, as three of the four congresswomen were, no one thought to question your rights to do the same as anyone else.

So, to those of us who admire the US, Mr Trump’s taunt seemed un-American. A majority of Americans agree: 59 per cent said the president’s comments were un-American and 65 per cent that they were racist, according to a USA Today/Ipsos poll. But Republicans felt differently. Fifty-seven per cent said they agreed with Mr Trump and a third said they strongly agreed with them.