Trump tests the limits of political make-believe in North Carolina

This is a challenging time in which to be an American, in a country whose citizens are this week being asked to simultaneously ponder imminent apocalypse wrought by artificial intelligence , and the political principles of the amicable ginger troubadour Ed Sheeran .

But down in North Carolina on Wednesday night, the president of the United States preferred to take constituents on a nostalgia trip rather than to deal with the fresh headlines and controversies. At a rally near Gastonia airport, outside Charlotte, to which he made the brief hop on Air Force One, Trump was there to at once campaign on behalf of Republican senator Michael Whatley and to prosecute the Democratic candidate, Roy Cooper, for what he described as a shocking level of crime in the Tar Heel state.