Did Reagan pave the way for Trump? ‘You can trace the linkages,’ says biographer

Ronald Reagan, who once said: ‘There have been times, in this office when I’ve wondered how you could do this job if you hadn’t been an actor.’ Photograph: Dennis Cook/AP

“Understand this about immigration,” Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House of Representatives and a staunch Democrat, said in an interview on HBO earlier this month. “The best speech on immigration was by President Ronald Reagan.”

Pelosi is not alone among Democrats heaping praise on the 40th president for his pro-immigration views, defiance of tyranny and politics of optimism – “It’s morning in America.” For many he has come to symbolise nostalgia for a more innocent, less partisan time. Visitors to America’s capital often land at Ronald Reagan Washington national airport. A newly released biopic starring Dennis Quaid is the latest burnishing of the myth.