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No doubt Donald Trump knows New York City and is familiar with the Puck building in Manhattan, which is currently owned by Jared Kushner’s family. It was once the headquarters of Puck, a satirical magazine founded by Joseph Keppler in 1876 that ran until 1918. The symbol of Puck, the mischievous pixie from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, graces the building and seems a perfect symbol of the Trump administration.
Puck was commissioned by the King and Queen of the Fairies to sabotage their rivals’ marriage plans. The magazine’s slogan, prominent on the masthead, was “What fools these mortals be.” Trump recently acts as if this is also his guiding principle when dealing with almost every soul he comes across.
Given his recent remarks and open contempt for institutions, it can definitely be said of The Donald that he is no respecter of persons. In a perverse way it is funny, in a civil fashion it is distressing to say the very least.
Trump’s behavior also suggests he has no patience at all. He acts as if he is omniscient, calmly issuing decrees and opinions in a scattered fashion. When he was asked what he meant by "free speech," he restated his reasons for banning disagreeable news outlets. But he seems cheerful to reduce the Bill of Rights to paper dolls.
Richard Nixon threatened to do this during the Pentagon Papers affair, harassing the New York Times and Washington Post because they reprinted classified government information. But Nixon was upset, while Trump takes the uproar in stride; like Puck, who used magic in the service of the King of the Fairies to disrupt the matrimonial plans of the Duke of Athens, Trump enjoys the action. He seems to be a one-person anarchist movement who loves playing jokes not only on his enemies but on himself and his friends. Trump is pure act who loves chaos.
However, he is Puck, not the King, so this falderal has a way to go before it ends, if it ends.
For Trump, life is a classical exploration of love, hate, and his version of satisfaction. But for statecraft, it is difficult to see how it is going to work out. Indeed, Trump seems to orchestrate both sides with sympathy. In front of his Cabinet, Trump is all bluff and puff; with individuals he is charm and agreement. With Zohran Mamdani he is rough one minute and in the Oval Office all sweetness and compliments. On the phone with Vladimir Putin or in Anchorage, Alaska, Trump is in agreement; with China he is rough in rhetoric at a distance, nice one-on-one.
Speaking of which, Trump mostly meets with Xi Jinping at what’s left of the White House. Which Trump will show up -- show up or show off? He will probably be a gentleman, but these days you never know. Perhaps Xi will love the show, but will probably leave doubting Trump’s credibility. To be puckish is dangerous; to play the fool is worse. Given that the GOP offers no restraint in diplomacy, playing with someone else’s interests courts disaster. Not since Richard Nixon with Watergate and Jimmy Carter with the Iranian hostage crisis has an administration been in as much peril. Xi and Putin are watching, as is Tehran. Trump may think that by being deceptively engaging, he is fooling his adversaries. This will not be the case. Tread carefully, Mr. President.