Donald Trump, during his first term, had a pair of summits with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and had a much more cordial relationship with Kim than U.S. presidents typically have.
The opening to North Korea didn’t lead to any lasting peace agreement, and Trump and Kim have not met in Trump’s second term. But instead, Trump has been acting a lot like his North Korean counterpart, as laid out in a new report by Zeteo,”How Trump is Turning DC into Pyongyang.”
“For decades, Trump has been obsessed with how other nations – including ones run by extraordinarily repressive regimes – honor their leaders with lavish, expensive public celebrations,” the Zeteo report says. “In private conversations, per sources who’ve been in the room with him, he can go on and on about how much (in Trump’s words) ‘respect’ and ‘love’ these countries shower on their rulers, and how supposedly great it is for the people’s national morale. He does not seem to understand or care that many of these societies he cites – whether in North Korea or in certain Arab monarchies – do those things under the constant threat of arrest, torture, or execution.”
“Sources close to the president have told Zeteo that on separate occasions over the past year, Trump has talked to longtime advisers about what it would take to officially make his birthday a national, federal holiday.” pic.twitter.com/mng255NbZY
— Matthew Zeitlin (@MattZeitlin) March 20, 2026
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Also, per the report, Trump has sought to give himself such honors as being placed on Mount Rushmore or making his birthday a national holiday.
“Since the start of his new presidency, Trump has privately asked multiple times about how to get his face up there on Mt. Rushmore, crowing to close allies how he is a more accomplished president than some of those faces on the memorial, according to people familiar with the matter,” the Zeteo story says.
“Donald Trump has gone further than any president before him in enforcing a cult of personality.”
Zeteo’s @prem_thakker reports from “Donald Trump’s Pyongyang”, aka Washington DC, as Trump turns the city into a monument to himself, echoing Kim Jong Un. pic.twitter.com/0GTzDROtVf
— Zeteo (@zeteo_news) March 14, 2026
“Sources close to the president have told Zeteo that on separate occasions over the past year, Trump has talked to longtime advisers about what it would take to officially make his birthday a national, federal holiday. Similarly, he has already repeatedly inquired about getting a Donald Trump-shaped monument built in our nation’s capital, and mentioned that he wants final approval on the size, look, location, content, and design of the statue and memorial.”
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
