“TWO peoples, separated by a common language” was Mark Twain’s pithy description of the joint use of English by the UK and USA.

Though we do indeed share much in common with our American cousins, the differences can be profound and not just syntactical.

The election of President Trump is a case in point. Not only did most Europeans pillory the man and his posturing but they were encouraged to do so by media on both sides of the Pond.

After his altercation with the Scottish Government over plans for a wind farm offshore from his Balmedie golf course, ‘The Donald’ has few friends in Scotland, being dismissed by most as a loudmouth egotist.

But loudmouth egotists are much more in favour in the States. From Ford and Rockefeller to Jobs and Zuckerberg, salesmanship with conviction has always been rated highly over there. Success is the criterion, not the manner in which it is achieved.

Whereas Brabson and Dyson represent the more subdued British titan, Trump actually embodies the aspirations of millions of Americans and taps into a nostalgia for a time when America bestrode the economic world.

Fifty years ago, that American Dream was in full flower. Detroit was churning out cars, Texas was churning out oil, TWA-Pan Am dominated air travel and Americans walked on the moon. Pre-Vietnam, they could do no wrong, making millionaires while defending the free world.

Every ordinary-Joe shopfloor workers pulled down $20 an hour and could afford spacious, well-furnished homes, a motor home in the drive and college for the kids.

Recently, I spent some time in Phoenix, the booming four million-population southwest hub with retirees and job-seekers flooding in.

Here they find idyllic 2,000 sq.ft., cathedral-ceilinged homes arrayed around lakes and golf courses. They can drive their huge, tinted-window trucks on eight-lane freeways between home, work and the mall.

Those who have achieved this and the army of Rust Belt remainers who aspire to it believe Trump when he says America will be great again. He channels their faith in such an ample lifestyle as their birthright. Namby-pamby liberals who control the media have subverted the dream.

It may be simplistic or even plausible to blame such ills on immigrants and foreign upstarts. But in a country racked by self-doubt, where 90 per cent have never been abroad and get little news from outside the state, let alone the country, growing misty-eyed at Trump’s siren call for the good old days is irresistable.

That his promises can cure everyone’s fiscal ills has popular appeal. Just ask the Brexiteers.