The image of Donald Trump walking with his security detail to St John's Church in Washington DC to hold a bible in the air for a photo opportunity was almost beyond parody.
Just prior to that well choreographed publicity stunt Trump addressed the nation, telling State governors refusing to call in the National Guard: "I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.”
Meanwhile, a short distance away, military police used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bangs to chase away demonstrators protesting against the killing of George Floyd.
Military vehicles rolled out on Pennsylvania Avenue like a wartime scene that will now be the legacy of the Trump presidency.
I'm not sure how many of you have watched the footage of George Floyd dying with a police officer's knee on his neck while calling for his 'mama', it is horrendous and I can't imagine what it must be like for his family.
The lack of compassion shown by the officer who continued to hold him down for several minutes after he lost consciousness is chilling. That his three colleagues watched on and threatened onlookers who begged them to intervene, a damning indictment of the systemic prejudice that has been allowed to poison the US from the top down.
We're from a land well used to violence and division, I come from a time and place when military on the streets was a 'normal' part of my childhood, we are still dealing with the legacy of that to this day.
Watching as injustice, discrimination and violent state actions rip through American cities and town, is shocking and yet disturbingly familiar.
Our own conflict is small and parochial in terms of the deeper and historic divisions that permeate American society.
The descendants of people who were looted from their own land and brought to America as slaves, still being treated as though they are property to be used, abused and disposed of with little dignity.
Even when a black man held the highest office in the land, racism continued to thrive.
Now it has been once again deemed as acceptable as it was prior to the civil rights movement, mainstream discrimination by a man in the White House with zero social responsibility and whose power comes from division not unity.
Rather than take time to calm tensions the president declared war on his own people.
It is hard to image a worse way to handle what's happening on the streets of America than the route taken by the current administration.
Back in 2016 when Trump was first elected there was a mix of opinions.
Could this strange man, a reality TV host with prehistoric views about women and an inherent sense of privilege really lead a country?
While he hadn't truly shown himself at that stage, he had shown enough to know this was not a man who possessed statesmanlike qualities.
But he was cunning enough to realise that a shift to the far right was a vote winner.
His win divided America in terms of race but also class with white, rustbelt Americans believing a man born with a gold plated spoon in his mouth would represent them because he claimed to be against the 'establishment'.
The reason white, and specifically Irish America, embraced Trump, spoke at that time more of how that country views success, in terms of wealth of the individual, rather than the betterment of a nation.
Closer to home and I remember at the time being scarlet with embarrassment for the local commentators thinking they were being edgy by throwing their lot behind Trump, claiming his victory was one for 'ordinary Americans'.
I wonder now they see images of ordinary Americans being gassed, shot with rubber bullets and battered off the street do the locally based Trump fanclub still feel as enthused by his controversial presidency.
The Trump version of the American dream, which translates as every man for himself, has turned into a modern day nightmare.
The second coming of the American civil right movement is now upon us and the legacy of that will appear in our grandchildren's history books.
And this time it will be transmitted instantly into our homes, via 24 hour rolling news and social media, the revolution really will be televised.
