I last went on a protest march 20 years ago. If Trump makes a state visit, I'll need a new placard

To stay silent as Trump demonises the progressive values on which Western civilisation was constructed is to abrogate the responsibility each of us has for making the world a decent place

President Trump came under fire this week for retweeting videos posted by the far-right group Britain First (AP)

I’m not really the protesting type. Before my wife and I got married, the priest who was to conduct the ceremony asked us each to identify the other’s best quality. Mine, apparently, was being affable. I took it as a compliment – as an affable person would of course.

I did once go on an anti-tuition fees march as a student. I’d been lucky and just missed paying them so thought it was probably right to go and shout on behalf of future students who at that stage looked like they would be on the hook for a grand a year (a grand!). Not that it made any difference. On the plus side, being out on a breezy morning helped me get over a terrible hangover.

That was nearly 20 years ago and I’ve not laid hands on a placard or chanted “down with this sort of thing” in the two decades since.

However, if Donald Trump makes his mooted state visit to the UK, I will finally be moved to get back on the streets.

To be clear, that is not because I intrinsically oppose him coming to this country. True, the speed with which he was invited to pop over for a full on dose of British pomp and ceremony was rather embarrassing. Ultimately though he is the President of the most powerful nation in the world and it’s not unreasonable that our Government should wish to be on good terms with him – hard though that may be after his Twitter row with Theresa May.

No, the reason I will protest is because I cannot stand the thought of him believing that a nice trip to Buckingham Palace for some polite chit-chat with the Queen is in any way representative of the feelings that many people in this country have about him. Just because the Prime Minister has decided to roll out the red carpet, doesn’t mean the rest of us think he deserves to be lauded.

Just over a year since his election as President I still find it hard to comprehend just how staggeringly awful Donald Trump is. His bullying of minority groups; his fear-mongering about the threat posed by Muslims; his full-throated support for the gun lobby; his disregard of climate change science; his apparent readiness to take the word of Vladimir Putin over his own intelligence services; his childish antics on social media; and on and on and on.

Frequently I have conversations with friends about Trump that just end up petering out because there are almost no words that can sum up how extraordinary it is that this unpleasant, narrow-minded man is ruling the global roost.

For liberal Americans, it is a different kind of nightmare. Indeed, the very fact that Trump has helped to turn the term “liberal” into an insult is one of the most troubling aspects of his presidency. It is the kind of thing that normally only happens in dictatorships, in which there is no place for tolerating tolerance. To stay silent as Trump demonises the progressive values on which Western civilisation was constructed is to abrogate the responsibility each of us has for making the world a decent place.

For all the criticism of Theresa May over the decision to invite Trump to the UK with such haste last year, it is to her significant credit that she was so blunt in saying the President had acted wrongly when he retweeted videos posted by Britain First. Various cabinet ministers – and other high-profile figures who had previously expressed support for Trump – have been even more damning.

The truth is, Trump is not going to change. If anything, his attitudes will harden as he continues to divide opinion. What that means for America – or for its relations with global partners; or for its enemies – is hard to predict.

But is incumbent on those who find his presidency repugnant to make sure he knows it. For when it comes to Trump, it is not possible to protest too much.