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Donald Trump soaks up the crowd at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C.

By Win McNamee/Getty Images.

Long before he embarked on the ultimate ego trip, leveraging his celebrity to seize the highest levels of political power, Donald Trump spent decades obsessed with appearances. An outer-borough boy from Queens who grew up longing to make his name in Manhattan, Trump flecked his every home with gold, bleached his teeth, and blew out his hair in a gaudy simulacrum of wealth. He called gossip pages and other reporters, adopting a fictitious P.R. persona, to give scoops about himself, hoping to see his name in print. He ran beauty pageants and created his own reality show where he could star. Like a modern-day Midas, he branded everything he touched, and licensed his name so that entire stretches of Manhattans West side would bear the words TRUMP, spelled out in three foot-high golden letters, reflecting across the Hudson River. He did interview after interview picking apart the appearances of foes and friends alikeextolling the attractiveness of his own daughter, for one, while calling Rosie ODonnell a fat pig.

Americans witnessed this childish display throughout the 2016 campaign and, it seems, his fans approved. They cheered his rhetorical assault on the establishment, the status quo, bien-pensant thinking and sensibilities. Trumps core support never wavered, even when he ripped into the looks of Alicia Machado, or dismissed allegations of sexual harassment by claiming his accusers were not attractive enough to warrant his attention, or when he retweeted an image contrasting a less-than-flattering photo of Ted Cruzs wife with a stunning shot of his wife, Melania (his third spouse, all three of whom were former models).

This translates into a fixation on how Trump himself is perceived, too. Thats why he could not stop talking about how well he was doing in polls and how many people showed up to his rallies. Its why he insisted that Mexicans loved him even as he called them rapists and repeatedly promised to build a wall to keep bad hombres out of the United States. Only Trump alone would be able to save the American people from the dismal picture he painted of the state of the nation, because he was the smartest, the best deal-maker, the most respected, he would say. Perhaps this is why, too, as his doctor admitted in a recent interview with The New York Times, Trump takes a prostate-related drug, Propecia, to ward off male-pattern baldness.

Old habits die hard, particularly for 70-year-old billionaires, which is why, even with the nuclear football tucked under his arm and the weight of the free world on his shoulders, Trump remains deeply concerned about the visuals of his presidency. According to a new report from Axios, sources close to Trump noted that the president chose his Cabinet nominees based, in part, on who best looked the part (General James Mattis and his strut got the nomination over General David Petraeus, who Trump noted to aides was quite short). He expects his staff to wear tiesthe wider the betterand the women who work for him to dress like women, which often means pressure to wear dresses.

Donald Trump is far from the first narcissist infatuated with optics to work in Washington. But the magnitude of both his position and his attention to appearance while in that role is stunning. On the first morning he woke up in the White House, for instance, he reportedly personally called Park Services in order to discuss photos they posted of the size of his inaugural crowds. That same day, he used his speech at C.I.A. headquarters to again talk about how many people came out to watch him take the oath of office, and he sent his press secretary Sean Spicer into the White House briefing room to falsely claim that it was the most-watched inauguration in history. (Trump was reportedly furious with Spicer afterward, not because he blatantly lied to the American people or stormed out of the room, but because he did not approve of his ill-fitting suit, pin-striped suit.)

Trump continued to focus on superficial details and perceived slights as his presidency entered its second week, even as his hastily-written executive order restricting travel from seven majority-Muslim countries provoked mass protests in the U.S., confusion within his own agencies, and outrage around the world. When he had the chance to talk to Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull on Saturday, he boasted about his electoral college win and ended the call early after clashing over a refugee resettlement agreement,The Washington Post reported. On Wednesday, he turned a brief speech commemorating the start of Black History Month into a rant against the media, particularly CNN, which he called fake news. And at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington on Thursday morning, Trump joked onstage that we should be praying for Arnold Schwarzenegger and his ratings for The Apprentice, the reality show the former California governor took over when Trump stepped down from the gig.

While Trump seems to care a great deal about his electoral win and his crowds and his ratings, he does not appear to give that same attention to keeping key allies, advisers, and partners in his good graces. Both Rex Tillerson, who was sworn in as secretary of state on Wednesday, and Department of Homeland Security chief John Kelly were reportedly upset with the president for not giving them enough time to review Trumps immigration order before he signed it on Friday. On a call with Mexican president Enrique Pea Nieto last week, after Trump blew up their planned meeting with a series of tweets about the country paying for his planned wall at the border, Business Insider reports that Trump was offensive, told him that he was going to pay for the wall whether he liked it or not, and threatened to use military force to fight the drug trade if they couldnt handle it themselves (both sides have called the phone conversation friendly). A source told me last week that the canceled meeting infuriated Trumps usually unflappable son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner, who had spent a full day brokering it.

Political observers have long hoped that Trump might rise above his insecurities now that he understands the grave responsibilities of the presidency, with all its attendant briefings on secret intelligence and sobering insights into national security. Yet, Trump does not seem to be sweating this big stuff. Instead, he seems to be becoming smaller, and more petulant, every day. Spicers tie, the number of people who watched his Supreme Court nomination announcement, these get under his skin. Alienating and prematurely hanging up on a critical American ally trying to talk about Syrian refugees? Who has time for that when there are Apprentice ratings to poke fun of and cable news pundits, talking about him, to watch?

Seth Meyers

John McEnroe and Diane von Furstenberg

Claire Bernard

Jimmy Buffett

Kelly Meyer, Carey Lowell, and Jean Pigozzi

Peggy and Mickey Drexler

Rhea Suh and Hasan Minhaj

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Seth Meyers

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

John McEnroe and Diane von Furstenberg

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Claire Bernard

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Jimmy Buffett

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Cocktail service at the after-party.

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Andy and Betsy Kenny Lack and Imran Khan

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Robyn Todd Steinberg and David Steinberg

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Harvey Weinstein and Lloyd Blankfein

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

A box of popcorn was placed at each seat ahead of the performance.

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

John Oliver

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Mike Birbiglia

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

A scene from the after-party, also held at 583 Park Avenue.

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Leslie Moonves, Tom Freston, and Bryant Gumbel

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Jane Buffett

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

David Zaslav, Len Blavatnik, and Richard Plepler

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Ronald O. Perelman

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

George Lopez

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Kelly Meyer, Carey Lowell, and Jean Pigozzi

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Peggy and Mickey Drexler

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Rhea Suh and Hasan Minhaj

Photograph by Hannah Thomson.

Link:
Donald Trump's Vanity Is Destroying His Presidency - Vanity Fair