The US president has never made a secret of his preoccupation with looks. But what has increased dramatically is the amount of time the president devotes to talking about the appearance of other men.
Donald Trump’s bumper tax-slashing, debt-swelling spending bill is not the only thing he professes to consider beautiful. His tour of the Persian Gulf earlier this month amounted to a full-blown compliment spree focused on other men’s appearance – Syria’s president was a “young, attractive guy”; the UAE’s was “magnificent”.
As for Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and the emir of Qatar, “they’re both tall, handsome guys that happen to be very smart”, he said. “You sort of remind me a little bit of each other.” (They also happen to be very good at treating him like a fellow royal: smart indeed.)
