TRUMP IS THE MAN DAD WANTED HIM TO BE

This New York Times story, co-authored by Maggie Haberman, is offered as a sign of President Trump's desire to live in a reality of his own making. That's true, obviously, but the story also tells us a lot about Trump's relationship with his nominal life partner.

On the first couple’s recent trip overseas, Melania Trump’s television aboard Air Force One was tuned to CNN. President Trump was not pleased.

He raged at his staff for violating a rule that the White House entourage should begin each trip tuned to Fox — his preferred network over what he considers the “fake news” CNN — and caused “a bit of a stir” aboard Air Force One, according to an email obtained by The New York Times.....

At the end of the email chain, officials confirmed that tuning the TVs to Fox would be standard operating procedure going forward.

It's no secret that Trump loves Fox News, but ordering everyone to watch it -- particularly his wife -- is very, very Trumpian. I'm reminded of this:

Mr. Trump grew up with an influential role model for how to deal with women: Fred C. Trump, his powerful and unyielding father.

The elder Mr. Trump exerted control no matter how big or small the decision, as Ivana Zelnickova learned over dinner one night in the late 1970s. Her boyfriend, Donald Trump, had invited her to join his siblings and parents at Tavern on the Green, the ornate restaurant in Central Park.

When the waiter came to take orders, Ivana made the mistake of asking for what she wanted. Fred Trump set her straight, she recalled in a previously unpublished interview with Michael D’Antonio, the author of “The Truth About Trump.”

Fred would order steak. Then Donald would order steak. ... Everybody order steak. I told the waiter, “I would like to have fish.” O.K., so I could have the fish. And Fred would say to the waiter: “No, Ivana is not going to have a fish. She is going to have a steak.” I said, “No, I’m going to have my fish.” And Donald would come home and say, “Ivana, why would you have a fish instead of a steak?” I say, “Because I’m not going to be told by somebody to have something which I don’t want.”

When he was asked about this, Trump backed his dad:

Mr. Trump defended his father’s conduct. “He would’ve said that out of love,” he said. If his father had overruled her fish order, Mr. Trump said, “he would have said that only on the basis that he thought, ‘That would be better for her.’”

That would be better for her. I assume Trump feels the same way about imposing Fox on his wife.

The president sometimes does this to men as well, as Chris Christie acknowledged shortly after Trump was inaugurated:

... on the “Boomer and Carton” sports radio show ... Christie explained that, when asked how to order food at the White House, Trump pointed everyone else to the menu, but gave him special instructions.

“This is what it’s like to be with Trump,” Christie said. “He says, ‘There’s the menu, you guys order whatever you want.’ And then he says, ‘Chris, you and I are going to have the meatloaf.’”

“He tells you what you’re eating?” co-host Craig Carton asked.

“Yeah, and I said, ‘We’re going to have the meatloaf?’” Christie answered. “And he said, ‘I’m telling you, the meatloaf is fabulous.’”

We know what Trump thinks of Christie. The word the alt-rightists and incels would use is "beta," or maybe "cuck." About the same as a woman, in Trump's estimation.

There's also this, from today's Times story:

The email, an internal exchange between officials in the White House Military Office and the White House Communications Agency last Thursday, also called for the ordering of two additional televisions to support Beam, a TiVo-like streaming device, to make sure the president and first lady could both watch TV in their separate hotel rooms when they travel.

At first glance, this suggests that Trump isn't controlling his wife's TV viewing, at least once the plane lands. But does Melania even want "a TiVo-like streaming device" in her hotel room? It's the president who's called the DVR “one of the great inventions of all time,” presumably because he gets cranky when he's forced to miss an episode of one of his favorite Fox shows. I bet Melania would be content just to fall asleep to whatever's on, or just buy a movie.

Through a spokeswoman, Melania denies that hr husband controls her viewing:

Seems kind of silly to worry about what channel she watches on TV (any channel she wants btw)....

That's what you'd expect to hear from a loyal political wife married to a controlling sexist.