I have known and liked numerous Americans. The best teacher I ever had was an American, and some of my favourite work colleagues have been Americans. As a people, Americans have many traits I admire. I admire their openness and their gutsiness and their self-reliance. And I admire their belief that things can always be improved/made better than they are. (Very different to our negativity and grumbling acceptance.)
That said, Trump seems to incarnate their worst side - the brash, ugly vulgarity. When Europeans say that Americans “have money but no class,” they are thinking of someone exactly like him. I could imagine Little Britain or the Fast Show coming up with a character called ‘the ugly American’, and it would basically be Trump. We laugh at Vicky Pollard because she perfectly incarnates a teenager from the British underclass. Yet Trump is real!! I think that’s what makes him so untouchable. People can’t believe he IS real..