Donald Trump has retaken the US presidency, repeating his vow to 'Make America Great Again'. But he's not the first to wield such a slogan. Back in the 1980s, Ronald Reagan stood for election with the same promise.Did he deliver?

Donald Trump's recurring battle cry "Make America Great Again!"- taps into a powerful sense among many Americans that life was better in the old days.

- Phil Tinline

This strategy of stoking nostalgia is clearly effective, but it isn't new - even that catchphrase is a throwback to the past.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan ran for the presidency with almost exactly the same slogan. And as his team began to discuss his bid for re-election in 1984, the campaign's deputy director declared: "We should remember that President Reagan was elected to make America great again." Before he won the White House, and despite his two terms as governor of California, Reagan had been seen by many as something of a joke - an old Hollywood has-been, the "candidate from Disneyland". By 1984, though, he was presiding over American politics with apparently effortless ease, and was on course for an overwhelming victory.

Looking back now, 40 years on, the aspect of the old actor's last campaign that's most striking is just how optimistic it was - a far cry from the tenor of US politics today. So had Reagan made America great again? Or was the spectacle not quite what it seemed?

Economic recovery

For much of Reagan's first term, the economy had been in serious trouble. In 1979, inflation had reached 11 per cent, and attempts to drive it down with high interest rates fuelled a recession. By the end of 1982, unemployment was at well over 10 per cent. But by 1984, helped by falling oil prices, the economy was growing at 7.2 per cent annually. Reagan had delivered big income-tax cuts. More and more Americans were acquiring credit cards, the better to buy increasingly affordable personal computers, video recorders and cable TV. As antitrust regulation was relaxed, mergers and acquisitions took off, and Wall Street boomed.