Alfred Doblin

The Record Opinion

Donald Trump went to Paris to celebrate Bastille Day with France’s new president, Emmanuel Macron. Forget the deux amis handshake. The kissing. The interaction between Trump and Brigitte Macron, the French president’s wife. Think about why Trump was there: to celebrate France’s overthrow of the Bourbon king, Louis XVI.

Technically, Bastille Day commemorates the people's attack on the notorious Bastille prison, which was mostly empty at the time. But it led to other things. The sacking of palaces. The arrest of King Louis and his gateau-loving wife, although the “let them eat cake” quip is viewed as more fiction than fact — le faux news.

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There are lessons to learn about the end of the French monarchy. Living high on the hog when your subjects can’t even afford a plate of pig’s feet is bad for one’s health. A government peopled with cronies, toadies and relatives is usually bad — period.

So there was Donald Trump, up to his famous coif in familial crisis, visiting the City of Light. It had just been revealed that eldest son Donald Jr. met with a Russian emissary during the 2016 campaign, one with close ties to the Russian government.

Donald Jr., or “the Dauphin,” had claimed a meeting with Russians about Hillary Clinton opposition research during the 2016 campaign never happened. But then The New York Times was about to publish all the nasty emails, so Donald Jr. released them first. They did not help his case, because they made clear he arranged to take a meeting with someone who promised to produce Hillary dirt and that information would demonstrate to him that the Russian government desired Trump to be the victor in the election.

Also at the meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya, the promised Russian, were Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, among others. The list of attendees appears to keep on growing.

Forget what was said and not said. The meeting should not have happened. The Dauphin should have been off on an estate shooting wild game. Kushner should be attending to his own businesses. While political families are not new to America — think Adams, Roosevelt, Kennedy and Bush — putting your family into government is not a smart idea. It is even less smart if they have no government experience.

Trump is running the United States as if it were his company, his kingdom. It’s not.

He’s hired help, not the king. And the more he flirts with monarchy, the more he courts disaster. While I am not a Trump fan, I get no pleasure thinking his Louis fixation — just look at the pictures of the interior of his penthouse in New York or his private jet — could prevent him from accomplishing any part of his agenda, because not all of his agenda is bad.

Family is like garlic: A little goes a long way. In Trump’s case, he should restrict family connections inside the White House to his young son and his wife, who may turn out to be his hidden asset. She is poised and charming and, as she comes out of her cocoon, is adding real style, rather than ersatz Sun King razzle-dazzle. But it is time to send Jared and Ivanka Trump back to New York.

Neither is helping Trump stay on his own message. And it is time for him to cut the cord with his business empire. He cannot serve two masters, Trump and the American people, while being the president of the United States.

Versailles is a beautiful place. I’ve walked through the grand rooms and gardens. It is breathtaking. But it came at a high cost. And the court of Versailles was full of intrigue, as much as gilded mirrors. Trump has been attracted to glitz his whole life. The American presidency is not about glitz. Even the symbol of the presidency, the White House, is designed with restraint, simple and dignified.

Trump should have used his Parisian escape as a lesson in what not to do as a leader of a republic. All the beauty that is the Paris of the Bourbons is only one side of the coin. The president needs photo-ops as much as the next world leader. But in Trump’s case, he needs to go out of his comfort zone to places not so grand, not etched in a history of privilege run amok.

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And he needs to go it alone. His children were not elected to any office. They are not qualified to be advisers to the president. They should be loyal supporters, but that is it. The president — any president — needs the best and the brightest in every field imaginable.

Family has its place. Invite them to dinner often.

Let them eat cake.

Alfred P. Doblin is the editorial page editor of The Record, where this piecefirst appeared. Follow him on Twitter:@AlfredPDoblin.

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