Is Trump making America great or diminishing it?

When I was young, the Donald I associated with America was the duck. These days, it's Trump. That makes me wonder which of the two is more representative of this powerful nation?

- Karan Thapar

Georges Clemenceau, who was prime minister of France both before and after World War I, thought of America in not dissimilar terms. He's reputed to have said, "America is the only country in the world to have progressed from barbarism to decadence without experiencing the intervening stage of civilisation." I wonder what he would have made of Trump?

The incredible, if not unbelievable, spat that has broken out between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky is not just unedifying but also an interesting illustration of the American President's behaviour. But to understand what happened on Friday, you need to go back to events since January.

Donald Trump called Zelensky a "dictator" who's done "a terrible job". He claims Zelensky only has 4% support even though Ukraine's own polls insist it's 57%. The 4% figure, Zelensky says, is Russian propaganda.

That's not all. Trump has dismissed Zelensky as "a modestly successful comedian", whilst accusing him of starting the Russia-Ukraine war and adding he "better move fast or he is not going to have a country left".