'Brand extension on steroids': How Trump aims to be 'the boss of everyone and everything'

13 February

President Donald Trump may be term-limited, but he's already working at making sure his name, brand and legacy will be imprinted on American institutions — including both in the federal government and culture at large.

That's according to a Thursday report in the New York Times, which documented the myriad ways Trump is using either the power of the presidency or the influence of the bully pulpit to "reorient the country to meet his vision of what it ought to be." The Times' Peter Baker noted that in less than a month, Trump has already named himself chairman and installed a new board at the Kennedy Center for the Arts, issued a veiled threat to the Texas House of Representatives to pass a private school voucher bill and even chided the National Football League for changing its kickoff rules.

"Trump’s ever-wider efforts at control seem like brand extension on steroids," Trump biographer Gwenda Blair told the Times. She observed that Trump has been obsessed with defining himself as "the nation's most successful dealmaker."

"During ‘The Apprentice,’ this morphed into the nation’s workplace boss," she continued. "Over the last decade, this has expanded into the Republican Party’s boss and the federal government’s boss. And now he’s making himself the boss of everyone and everything.”

Trump has also used his influence as the 47th president of the United States to leave his mark on pet issues he repeatedly harped on during his campaign. This includes an executive order on replacing biodegradable paper straws with plastic straws, writing: "Enjoy your next drink without a straw that disgustingly dissolves in your mouth!!!"

He also signed an order instructing the Environmental Protection Agency to focus on water flow issues with household appliances. On his Truth Social platform, he emphasized that the order was "pertaining to SINKS, SHOWERS, TOILETS, WASHING MACHINES, DISHWASHERS, etc. and to go back to the common sense standards on LIGHTBULBS."

This mindset has also extended to the geography of the United States. Ever since issuing an executive order that the Gulf of Mexico was to be renamed "the Gulf of America," Trump has retaliated against news outlets that call the body of water by its original name, including the Associated Press (AP). The AP argued that because its audience is global and because the Gulf of Mexico is still the de facto term used by all other countries, they weren't changing their editorial standards.

Click here to read the Times' report in full (subscription required).

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