For US president Donald Trump’s first state visit to the United Kingdom in 2019, 100,000 people turned up on the streets of London to protest. In 2025? It was 5,000. I would not take this as evidence enough alone of his rehabilitation in the popular consciousness – we can only divine so much about the world by how activists behave – but it is a robust start.

“Is Donald Trump cool, actually?” asked GQ magazine earlier this year. In 2023, the Financial Times vaunted his “irresistible comedic value”. There is a shift happening. It is detectable in trace amounts in the liberal media – even the Atlantic and the New York Times demonstrate flashes. You may notice it in casual conversation. And anyone who reports from the front lines of the internet – whether on X or murkier forums like 4chan – will tell you that the further left you head on the political spectrum, the more you will find young people praising Trump as a kind of cheeky subversion of expectations.

Somewhere in recent years, hating Trump became evidence of millennial cringe – remember those pussy hats and all that Hillary valorisation? The kindest thing you could describe it as is passé. And what........

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