TODAY is a sad day not only for many Americans but for millions around the world who once looked to the United States as a beacon of democracy and justice.

A republic founded on the principles of the 18th century Enlightenment and the Roman republic has now become a travesty of itself.

The words on the bronze plaque affixed to the Statue of Liberty no longer apply.

From a sonnet written by the poet Emma Lazarus entitled ‘The New Colossus’, the inscription reads: “Give me your tired, your poor / your huddled masses yearning to be free / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me / I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

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Although the plaque wasn’t attached until 1903, the tablet held in Liberty’s left hand is inscribed July IV MDCCLXXVI, July 4 1776.

For tens of millions, including countless Irish, it was a beacon of hope.

Not any more. The White House is defiled by a dangerous, grotesque megalomaniac, often rambling and deranged, surrounded by a court of incompetent, nauseating sycophants.

That president has just had his plan to deny automatic US citizenship to people born in the USA rejected by a Supreme Court decision.

It’s one of the few decisions........

© The Irish News