He's still as unhinged and more radical than before

IT was 2017 and, like many, I hoped that Donald Trump's lies and threats on the campaign trail were nothing more than political bluster designed to get him into the White House.

- CHRISTOPHER BUCKTIN

After all, this was a man who had spent years in the public eye with no political experience, and the notion that his time in office would soften him seemed plausible.

Perhaps the weight of the office, the responsibilities of governance, would bring about a more tempered, even presidential, version of the man we'd seen campaigning. I was wrong.

Fast-forward eight years and as I stood at the Capitol once again, freezing in the cold, I realised with a heavy heart that the Trump we had hoped time might change was nothing more than a fantasy.

Instead, we saw the emergence of Trump Mark II - still as unhinged, more radical and just as divisive, if not more so than before.