Why is Trump so obsessed with other men's looks?

Flattery is only part of the story for a president who behaves like the star of his own movie.

- Jemima Kelly

Donald Trump's bumper tax-slashing, debt-swelling spending Bill is not the only thing he professes to consider beautiful. His tour of the Gulf earlier in May 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.) And Mr Trump does not reserve his flattery for diplomacy. When it came to the serious business of welcoming national college basketball champions, the University of Florida Gators, to the White House, it was the same schtick: "Tall guys! Good-looking guys!" Presenting medals to families of fallen police officers, he described the "devastation" for one of the families before solemnly pointing out: "Good-looking son, too."