Regardless of how his communications team tried to spin his statements overseas last week – maligning the press in the process by calling the “fake news media” the “real enemy of the people” – what should have become clear to everyone is that Trump would like to remake the US in the image of a Putin-dominated Russia.

Many Trump opponents would like to believe that his Putin worship has more to do with the possibility that the Russian leader has some very toxic dirt on him. We have no evidence that this is the case.

Watch: What does Russian President Vladimir Putin fear?

This is not to judge Russia or China. It is pointless to try to evaluate which system is better because the answer depends on what measurements one chooses to emphasise. We can only make judgments about whether those in power are governing according to their society’s broader cultural values, laws and foundational texts.

The US is a country of immigrants, descended from the Enlightenment movement that blossomed in western Europe in the 18th century. In this paradigm, freedom of political expression, individual rights, and due process – all broad checks on authoritarian tendencies – are civilisational cornerstones.

Trump’s behaviour in Brussels and Helsinki was his clearest rebuke yet of these ideals. He feels threatened by them and is determined to undermine them by wrenching the US from the global order America established in the 20th century and re-aligning it with governments at odds with that order.

According to Gallup, Trump’s approval rating has been rising steadily for the past six months, from a low of 35 per cent in mid-December to 43 per cent in the last reading, taken before Trump went to Europe.

If it continues to rise, we know that Trump’s base wants to trade America’s core values for tax cuts.

Deplorable indeed.

Robert Delaney is the South China Morning Post's US bureau chief, based in New York