Where there's brass

摘要

NINE days before Donald Trump's inauguration as the 45th president, it was as if he was still fighting for election. In a press conference on January 11th, his first for six months, Mr Trump was as thin-skinned, loose-lipped and scrappy as he has ever been. He taunted his rivals and critics, real and suspected; he compared America's intelligence agencies to Germany's Nazi regime. He bragged continually ("Nobody has ever had crowds like Trump has had"), scrambling the fact-checkers of media outlets, some of whom he also decried. He called CNN a pedlar of "fake news". Mr Trump's fans said they wanted a different kind of leader. America is about to get one.