John Avlon is a CNN senior political analyst and anchor. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion articles on CNN.

Casually dismissing George Washington's impact on American history is the kind of thing that would get cut from a satirical script about the Donald as implausible.

But that's apparently what happened when the 45th President visited Mount Vernon -- home of the first president -- with French leader Emmanuel Macron last April, according to Politico.

"If he was smart, he would've put his name on it," Trump said about Mount Vernon. "You've got to put your name on stuff or no one remembers you."

Let's leave aside the "if he was smart" dig -- it's too absurd to address. But the "... or no one remembers you" line is begging for a reality check. Luckily it's readily apparent that Washington is remembered, from his face on the dollar bill to the quarter to the name of the US capitol, where Donald Trump lives. But the most basic answer is that George Washington is part of the American pantheon, celebrated in everything from children's storybooks to textbooks to dozens of new hardcover books published each year.

But there's that word: books. Donald Trump's not a fan of books in general, and he's not a fan of presidential biographies in particular. In fact, he's bragged about never reading any presidential biographies despite being fascinated by power and wanting to run for president since at least the 1980s . Perhaps most stunning, he's expressed no interest in doing so now that he lives in the former home of so many imperfect American heroes.

This prideful ignorance, the belief that he's got nothing to learn from the past, that facts are merely obstacles to a good sales pitch, compounds the steep learning curve he faced entering the White House as the first president to ever take the oath of office without previously holding elected or appointed office, not even Cabinet offices or the military.

History provides a guide for presidents, companionship for the loneliest and most consequential office. Perhaps that's why virtually all our presidents have been voracious readers -- from Thomas Jefferson to Teddy Roosevelt to Woodrow Wilson to Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama -- to name just a few. It's especially true for those who've been essentially self-taught, like Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman. As Truman famously said, " the only thing new in the world is the history you don't know ."

But Donald Trump is constantly discovering the world anew. Listen to his riff on Lincoln : "Great president ... Most people don't even know he was a Republican. Right? Does anyone know? A lot of people don't know that." This from the leader of the Party of Lincoln.

Or here's Donald Trump on the Civil War : "People don't realize, you know, the Civil War, if you think about it, why? People don't ask that question, but why was there the Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?"

Actually people ask that all the time, and slavery is the reason there was a Civil War.

The point isn't that you need to be a history buff to be president. But curiosity helps. It leads to empathy and a larger sense of responsibility beyond simple self-interest. It reminds the occupant of the Oval Office that the presidency is a sacred trust not only with the American people, but also a crucial bridge between the past and the present.

Tone comes from the top and so President Trump's dismissal of history sends a message that resonates through his administration and the country. As one person close to the White House told Politico , "His supporters don't care, and if anything they enjoy the fact that the liberal snobs are upset" that he doesn't know much about history.

This is the real-life echo of a line said by Stephen Colbert, in character at the 2006 White House Correspondent's Dinner : "I've never been a fan of books. I don't trust them. They're all fact and no heart. They're elitist, always telling us what is or isn't true, what did or didn't happen."

What was the stuff of satire is now echoed from the Oval Office. The downstream effect is a defining down of our shared history. It deprives us of powerful common ground that has traditionally transcended partisanship. And it compounds the crisis of civic education in our country

Politics is history in the present tense. And as President, Donald Trump is living history. It would help if he cared enough to learn about it. After all, those who don't study history are condemned to repeat it.