Donald Trump is often accused of having no core values. This I find highly unfair. Throughout Mr. Trump’s life and career there is one perspective that has never changed or faded, and that is his admirable love of himself. Despite a highly unlovable nature Donald Trump’s love of Donald Trump has never wavered, never been in question. How enviable that is! This is clearly what Mr. Trump’s many supporters think. We choose our leaders not only for where they lead, but to partake in their aura. Americans partly chose John F. Kennedy because they hoped that his youthful dynamism and optimism was a projection of their own qualities. And perhaps it was! The supporters of Donald Trump hope that his self-love will lead to their own self-love, that his petulance will reinforce their own, that his lack of reflection and knowledge will justify their own such lack. An America led by Donald Trump is frightening, an America becoming Donald Trump even more so!

This leads me to another, related, point. A stable of the Trump repertoire is the branding. Everything touched by Mr. Trump will immediate be given the Trump pre-fix, Trump Towers, Trump Turnberry, the horrible Donald J. Trump Signature Collection of ties and shirts. A Trump presidency will bring not only the Trump White House, meaning the Trump administration, but the Trump White House, as in the building with its rebranded name flashing in neon. And then, of course, we shall have Washington, District of Donald Trump (DDT), Trump Manhattan, Donald J. Trump New York, Donald Delaware, the USTA – you get the picture.

Is there a way out of this? In the past couple of years there has been a lot of media buzz about the possibility of a one-way ticket to Mars. I have argued against this on ethical grounds, but I am now starting to change my mind. I wonder if we can induce Mr. Trump to go on such a trip if we promise him that we will rename the destination Trump Mars?