Trump knows that we find him vulgar, that the only reason he gets his attention is because of the size of his cannons and his tariffs, and because every foreign ministry has taken note that his egomaniacal mindset needs a magic mirror to tell him every morning that he is the most feared man in the world. It doesn't matter if they throw him a closed-door reception if the TV can show him riding in a carriage alongside a king and inspecting toy soldiers.
But this forced cult of the leader's personality is more than the result of his personal insecurity and international capitulation combined. It is a symptom of a regression in values that profoundly affects us all because it marks the drift of democracy toward authoritarianism. Americans knew they were electing a president with a police record, a criminal record, and a coup plotter. A significant part of the cultural war within democracies is that many ordinary people say that such men represent them. It's been many years of economic crisis, the abandonment of critical thinking, and the promotion of functional illiteracy.
Trump was delighted that Stephen Colbert was fired and then wrote, "Kimmel is next." And said, done. Trump is a textbook autocrat: the president doesn't tolerate being publicly exposed on television. And the stain spreads: English police arrested four people for projecting photos of Trump and Epstein on the walls of Windsor Castle. Criticism is punishable as dissent. We know what's going on. Here, not long ago, they banned the color yellow on ornamental fountains. The king goes naked. We shouldn't go.
