In a sense, history has already been made. We do not know the result of the election yet, but over the last two months, Americans have endured the worst speeches ever given by a president of the United States.

It is far from a simple matter to adjudicate – there have been so many bad speeches over the years, going back the founders, some of whom dreaded speaking in public. George Washington’s inaugural address did not begin promisingly, with a halting first sentence: “Among the vicissitudes incident to life, no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month.”

But it feels like we have entered new territory, with speeches that are far worse than convoluted, or dull. Instead, they are routinely overflowing with vitriol against perceived enemies, groundless predictions of victory, and delusions of grandeur.

At their best, they can offer a form of entertainment to the Maga supporters who still line up, in dwindling numbers. At their worst, they provide evidence of a president whose faculties are failing him.

It used to be vitally important for any White House speechwriter, under any previous administration, to factcheck a speech, because it would be unthinkable to state a known falsehood in a presidential address. Now, it is impossible to rely on anything communicated from the most powerful office in the world, whether in the torrent of rally speeches now ending, or in the ceaseless drip of social media posts every night.

Donald Trump has succeeded in lowering the bar even further than where it was in his first term, or even in the first year of his second term.

In the past, a White House would routinely put every presidential utterance on its website, believing it to be in the interest of the American people. But the current gatekeepers refuse to put Trump’s rally speeches online, as if conscious that they are lowering the dignity of the office. Instead, they must be read in other places.

The media has reported with........

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