The most self-aware question Trump has ever asked

In a recent Oval Office interview with Time magazine, President Donald Trump asked whether he is a better builder or a politician, a question MS NOW columnist Hayes Brown argues reveals the heart of his second term. Brown contends that Trump has hit political limits he lacks the skills to overcome, and so retreats into physical projects he can control, such as White House renovations, a proposed ballroom, and a planned arch near the Lincoln Memorial.

According to Brown, about 20 percent of Trump's answers to Time concerned the Kennedy Center, which Trump would not promise to spare from demolition, and his alterations to the White House. Trump described repair work as something he does better than anything else, and said it relaxes him. He also said he has spent six months asking chief of staff Susie Wiles to draft a statement designating his Oval Office changes a federal landmark.

Brown writes that Trump has left inflation, planning for the Iran war, and relations with congressional Republicans largely unaddressed, and that some political opponents already talk of dismantling his projects once he leaves office. In Brown's view, Trump is trying to build his political legacy in stone and steel.

Summarized by PolitiKool from MS NOW’s reporting. Read the full story at MS NOW →