Critics of America’s newly inaugurated 45th president were elegantly castigated by Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel for taking Candidate Trump literally but not seriously, while his voters took him seriously not literally. This means that while his pledge on Friday that “our country will thrive and prosper again” should be taken seriously, he ought still to be open to advice on how to go about it.

The first advice must be to think long-term. This may not come naturally to the Tweeter-in-Chief with his thirst for daily proofs of popularity and power, but President Donald Trump’s earlier pledge to rebuild infrastructure was a welcome sign that he realises restoring greatness will take time.

Few, if any, projects to modernise roads, bridges, airports and so on will be benefiting the US’s productivity even by the time he seeks re-election in four years, but the idea is still an excellent one that Americans should insist on being implemented and that European governments should seek to emulate.