"We talk about the contrast between the American ideal of masculinity – generous, confident, empathetic, determined; the one you think of when you imagine the 'Greatest Generation' who fought in the second world war – and the one Trump presents. He [Bruce Springsteen] laughs at the difference. 'In Trump’s case, the facade is easy to see through, and what you see is a bundle of anxiety, fragility and insecurity', he says. 'It’s the thinnest possible mask of masculinity. And it wouldn’t fool anybody from the Greatest Generation'. There’s a faint hesitation around his use of those words, as if acknowledging that not everyone who fought in the war, including his father, was necessarily great. 'It’s such a thin costume that for me it doesn’t hold for a moment. But there have been quite a few people he has attracted along the way, so I suppose the bluster works to a certain degree. He’s really quite an embarrassment if you’re from the USA. It’s simply the most rigid and thinnest veil of masculinity over a mess'.