“New York Times” columnist David Brooks likened President Donald Trump to Mao Zedong and other authoritarian leaders who seek to be venerated by the public on “PBS NewsHour.”

GEOFF BENNETT, PBS NEWSHOUR: As we wind up our conversation here, I want to talk about the White House saying that President Trump has renamed – or, rather – we should say it this way – Trump appointed members to the Kennedy Center board, and that board voted, the board says unanimously, to rename the Kennedy Center, as you see there, the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Arts. It’s remarkable, in that the Kennedy Center is more than just a performance space. It is a memorial to a fallen president. JONATHAN CAPEHART, MS NOW: Right, a memorial to a slain president. And yet – I take this to – back to the president’s mental acuity, although this isn’t him being crazy. This is him being a flat-out, full borne narcissist. He’s already done it before. It’s now the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace. He’s got an Arc de Triomphe-like thing that’s going to go on the other side of the Memorial Bridge. He – I saw somewhere that memorials are usually done for people who have left us, either through murder or through death, who have done things that are worthy of note. We have not seen, at least I haven’t seen, a sitting president out there skipping through Washington, slapping his name on anything and everything. This is not normal. And I’m glad you described what happened today in the way that you did. The center cannot be renamed legally by that Kennedy Center board or by the president of the United States. The fact that his name is now on the building less than 24 hours of this happening says to me that the president does not give a damn about the law on anything, whether it comes to that memorial or whether it comes to boats in the – off the coast of Venezuela or anything. BENNETT: Are we seeing an evolution here in how President Trump publicly asserts his power? DAVID BROOKS, NEW YORK TIMES: Yes, that’s well put. It is an assertion of power. You think who else has big portraits of themselves all over? Mao Tse-Tung. Stalin. Authoritarian leaders know that a certain part of the population likes it when they see the great leader idolized and venerated. I have a building right by my house on Capitol Hill, and it’s Teddy Roosevelt and Donald Trump, gigantic portraits. And it does remind you of going back to the Stalin era. And so it is a form of psychological amassing of power to turn yourself into a demigod. And I think, as sad and pathetic as he makes it, I think that’s what he’s trying to do.

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