The ‘Great Man’ Presidency

Subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Overcast | Pocket CastsThis week, the State Department released a mock-up of a new limited-edition passport designed to commemorate America’s 250th birthday. Previews show it including John Trumbull’s famous image of the presentation of the Declaration of Independence, but the image is small and crowded, so you can’t really make out any individual Founding Father. The inside cover across from that tableau has a markedly different layout: the robust head of Donald Trump, smirk-scowling, taking up as much space as the entire grouping of all the Founding Fathers on the opposite page. His portrait rises above the faded text of the Declaration of Independence. A man still alive, but pre-embedded in history.The new Trump passport joins a growing list of documents, monuments, and interior-design details that Trump has lately altered in his own image. As our staff writers Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer reported, Trump has even recently begun crazy-gluing presidential challenge coins—gold, palm-size souvenirs popular in military circles—onto many White House doors. Most presidents at least play-act modesty and let supporters rename the airports after they’re gone. But Trump isn’t bothering with those niceties. According to Ashley and Michael’s reporting,