The Petulant President

Donald Trump seems to believe public service means making the public look at his name.

Walk around Washington and you’ll see his face looming over federal buildings, turning institutions that belong to Americans into advertisements for one man. His administration has confused governing the country with branding it.

His name even adorns the Institute of Peace, an irony for a president waging war in Iran after threatening the sovereignty of Greenland. Apparently, peace is another property available for a Trump sign.

But the Kennedy Center offers the clearest illustration. After a court ordered his name removed from the memorial to President John F. Kennedy, his allies kept pursuing ways to restore it. The administration raised the prospect of demolition without renovations; the center’s leadership subsequently closed its main building, citing repairs.

The message is hard to miss: if Trump cannot claim something, everyone else risks losing it.

A president should understand stewardship: preserving institutions built by others for generations still to come. Trump behaves like a child encountering another child’s sandcastle. He didn’t build it. He doesn’t own it. But he demands his name above the entrance.

And when the answer is no, out comes the foot.