He confuses the way he thinks he is treated with the well-being of the country.

[Demovictory9]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/25/opinion/donald-trump.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

For Donald Trump, all is personal.

And in his view, he is not the executive of the company. He is the embodiment of the country. He runs the country the way he ran his business, as the curating and promotion of his personal brand.

The people who support him are customers — people to be sold a vision and a dream. The people who criticize or oppose him threaten the brand and must be dealt with.

For Trump, everything is image-based and rooted in the appearance of personal relationships. When the Danish prime minister rebuffed his overture about buying Greenland, calling the idea “absurd,” Trump threw a tantrum and canceled his visit to Denmark.

Trump discussed the episode at one of his press gaggles, calling the prime minister’s response “nasty’ and saying, “We can’t treat the United States of America the way they treated us under President Obama.” He went on to say: “She’s not talking to me. She’s talking to the United States of America. You don’t talk to the United States that way, at least under me.”

No, actually, she was talking to him.

America was not being dismissed or disrespected. This proposal, which sounded like a joke, was being laughed at. And this president hates being laughed at.

Everything in Trump’s view is about whether someone is nice or nasty to him. It’s not about the country at all. It’s not about historical precedent or value of continuity.

His dislike of his predecessors — Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and even Jimmy Carter — is personal, not rooted in policy. He has a particular obsession with Obama, and has set about to undo everything Obama had done.

It’s petty and small and beneath the presidency, much like Trump himself.

[Kurt V.]

1. its common among dictators to view and present themselves as the nation itself.

[procon]

2. In ancient Egypt pharoahs destroyed the names

and images of their hated rivals. They ordered them chiseled off monuments and stone tablets in an effort to deny their legacy.

Trump is going about the same megalomania, and he thinks such behavior is perfectly normal and no one notices the depth of his aberration or his descent into madness.

[Scarsdale]

3. President Obama was respected

worldwide. Remember how many countries asked if they could have him when his second term was over? Who do you think will want the orange idiotic blob of blubber when his term is done? He is a worldwide JOKE. The gop is going down with the SS tRump, too.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. "L'tat, c'est moi" -- King Louis 14 of France. . . . nt

[chowder66]

5. It's petty and small and beneath the presidency, much like Trump himself. NYT drop "much". nt

[smirkymonkey]

6. He's such a raging narcissist. It's a danger to our democracy and to the people

of this country who "aren't on his side" because he is also cruel and vindictive. There is no telling how far he will go to get back at his perceived enemies. He needs to be removed from office.

[GoCubsGo]

7. "And this president hates being laughed at."

Perhaps he should stop being the biggest fucking joke on the planet, then.

A pox on the assholes who are allowing this psycho to remain in office. May they all wind up rotting in prison.