Trump: “[Kim Jong-Un] Speaks and His People Sit up at Attention. I Want My People to Do the Same.”

This morning, President Trump dropped in on the most powerful TV show, definitely now, and maybe in the history of mankind: Fox & Friends. It is de facto state television through and through, and their broadcast from the north lawn of the White House contained plenty of standard Trumpian nonsense, but one clip definitely stood out.

WOW — Trump says he wants American people to treat him like North Koreans treat totalitarian dictator Kim Jong Un.

“Hey, he’s the head of a country, and he’s the strong head — he speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.” pic.twitter.com/A43xYXsFod

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 15, 2018

Given that lies are the modus operandi of the Trump Administration, this is a bit refreshing. We all knew that Trump is so vain and insecure so as to require North Korean-style fealty (“fealty” is a relative word, since it comes because Kim Jong-Un is a genocidal tyrant who follows his family’s tradition of being the closest living thing there is to Adolf Hitler, North Koreans must choose between abject loyalty or death), but to hear him say it so matter-of-factly is actually kind of revealing.

Instead of being mad at how totalitarian this statement is (save your anger for the child concentration camps we’re currently expanding), just appreciate what it reveals about Donald J. Trump—a man so fundamentally broken and insecure that the only kind of loyalty he can understand is one towards a murderous dictator. Anything short of that is seen as betrayal. What a sad, pathetic life to live.

Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling.