Trump’s Monumental Obsession

Tom Nichols: “Perhaps this world of troubles is why Trump is taking refuge in plans of marble and gilt. Even an emotionally healthier man might want an occasional break from the travails of a presidency in crisis: Harry Truman would retire to the White House balcony with a bourbon; Dwight Eisenhower played a lot of golf; Kennedy and George H. W. Bush loved sailing; Ronald Reagan watched hundreds of movies in the mansion theater and at Camp David.”

“But Donald Trump is not an emotionally healthy man, and his obsession with monuments is not a mere diversion from the pressures of the job. His most recent tirade—posted at 7:34 this morning on his Truth Social site, some six hours after his last post the night before—suggests a president who is now lost in a fantasy city in his mind, a capital where the buildings are festooned with his name, drenched in glitz, and bristling with weapons.”