This article was first published on Saturday 3rd November

For Donald Trump and the Republican Party it seems there is something rotten in the suburbs of Virginia.

Going into next week’s midterm elections, marking Mr Trump’s first two years in the White House, nowhere should be more staunchly Republican than the state’s Loudon County.

In this, the wealthiest of all America’s 3,007 counties, average income is $134,464. A Confederate statue stands proudly in the middle of Leesburg, its main town. The headquarters of the National Rifle Association is a short drive away.

But amid the leafy cul-de-sacs rebellion is stirring. On the manicured lawns, Democrat signs are proliferating like rapacious weeds….