A rare moment of wistful self-reflection on the last day of campaigning in the US election gave way to trademark rants and insults

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“And now, the end is near/ And so I face the final curtain.”

Before a roaring crowd on Monday, Donald Trump summoned sons Don Jr and Eric, daughter Tiffany, daughter-in-law Lara Trump and son-in-law Michael Boulos to the stage. Their faces threw the orangeness of the family patriarch into stark relief. Trump insisted that his son Barron and daughter Ivanka were watching from afar. “She loves the whole thing,” he said, not very convincingly.