Trump stopped speaking for more than 30 seconds while addressing thousands of members of the National Rifle Association in Dallas.

Is the United States in a Chevalier de Panat moment? He was the obscure French nobleman who said that “the Bourbons have learned nothing and forgotten nothing” — a remark from the 19th century that has lived through the decades and that has eerie resonance for our own time here in the 21st century.