HAPPY 225TH BIRTHDAY, America. It would be nice to be able to say with even a modicum of sincerity that the world’s oldest continuous democracy is looking good for its age.

Scientists recently concluded that humans go through two phases of rapid biological ageing. The first is in the early 40s, the second in the early 60s. Both mark points when the wheels start to come off the metabolic, muscle composition, vascular, neurological and organ function wagons.

It seems that over the past decade, America has aged in dog years. Its collective cognitive function has diminished to an alarming degree and its organs of democracy – the executive, the legislature and the judiciary – are in a state of decay.

But the celebrations must continue until morale improves. America’s never-ending Trump-themed 250 Birthday bash is the equivalent of Dorian Grey’s portrait in the attic; an external manifestation of internal putrefaction.

President Donald Trump greets supporters after arriving on a Freedom 250 train, Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Medora, N.D. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

The faux swagger of the vulgar, violent UFC spectacle on the White House lawn was followed by the gimcrackery of the jerry-rigged American State Fair, with its power failures, melted vats of ice cream, and near-empty exhibits as the crowds stay away in droves.

And of course, the Reflecting Pool – the stinking, fetid cesspool that cost taxpayers more than 10 times what the US President promised – is the perfect metaphor for the corruption, hubris and incompetence of the Trump era. Meanwhile, another stretch of water some 11,000 km away has exposed the folly of Trump’s latest foreign adventure.

National Park Service staff test the water at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

America’s rapid decline of the past decade is all the more tragic, because for so much of its 250-year history, its democracy was ageing gracefully, inching closer to fulfilling its founders’ aim of becoming an ever more perfect union. There were dark, regressive periods in the past, but there was an underlying optimism, a belief that a people bound by ideals over territory could unite to overcome its divisions.

Throughout its history, America’s potential came closest to being realised when its democratic institutions worked together to achieve the greatest good for the greatest........

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