President Donald Trump’s obsession with memorializing himself often spurs strange outbursts to world leaders about arches, a New York Times journalist revealed Friday.
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The 80-year-old president spends most of his time focused on personal retribution and renovating Washington, D.C., to his own preferences, according to New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, who told her colleague Ezra Klein.
“This I will say about getting into his mind: Seventy percent of it would be on his renovations,” Haberman said. “It’s a legacy thing… It’s, ‘What am I leaving behind so the world can’t kick me off the world — or deplatform me or take my name off buildings in Manhattan or take away my Bronx leased golf course?'”
Haberman reported that official meetings are often interrupted by Trump’s abrupt outbursts on said buildings.
“In a meeting, one of the things he was musing about was what should go on top of the arch,” Haberman said. “It was, like, should he put a gold version of the ‘fight, fight, fight’ fist from Butler up there?”
In another meeting, Trump called up French President Emmanuel Macron to pepper him with bizarre questions about a major monument he intends to build in Washington, Haberman said.
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“He calls French President Emmanuel Macron in the middle of another meeting and starts asking him about the Arc de Triomphe in France, asking, ‘What’s it like,’ and, ‘Does it have a visitor’s desk? Do people jump off it?'” Haberman added.
“This was the conversation that he was interested in, and he’s still talking about this kind of thing — but calls up a foreign leader to inquire about what his arch to himself should look like.”
Trump has become so consumed by these personal projects that he simply doesn’t care about legislative priorities, according to Haberman.
“He is playing for history, capital-G great man of history — to be remembered by one name, to have left a mark on the world that is just different than a typical president,” she said.
“That doesn’t involve the boring work of trying to pass a bill,” Haberman added. “That doesn’t involve the boring work of going to Iowa…This is fundamentally less interesting to him.”
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