What did Donald Trump do today?

He gushed over his name being put on a road by a government that was clearly trying to manipulate him. 

Trump has long been obsessed with his personal brand. His fame as a real estate investor came more from his penchant for putting his name on buildings, than from any success he had as a businessman. (Even after inheriting a billion-dollar portfolio of prime New York City real estate at the beginning of a decades-long housing boom, Trump still managed to underperform the stock market for his entire "career" in real estate, and that's ignoring the businesses he ran into the ground.)

Since returning to office, one of his highest priorities has been to put his name or face on everything he possibly can, from passports to US currency (both bills and coins) to buildings to a new form of child savings account that's just a little worse than existing options in every way. He got the Florida resort town where he now lives to rename its airport after him—and made sure he got a cut of the profits in the bargain—and is trying to get Washington's Dulles Airport named for him too, as well as NYC's Penn Station.

(That is, to put it mildly, only a partial list.)

A number of countries have courted and received Trump's favor by proposing new local "Trump Towers," which doubled not only as a form of influence-buying but also money laundering. But Morocco's government hit on a simpler and much cheaper way of buying Trump's goodwill: it is naming a highway after him. 

Trump was delighted by the news, and announced it himself on social media. But there's an obvious catch: the road runs through the disputed territory of Western Sahara, which is under Moroccan occupation. Trump, unlike every other US president for the past 50 years, has been open to recognizing Morocco's claim, which is heavily disputed by residents and a number of African countries supporting independence.

In other words, this successful appeal to Trump's ego also binds the United States to a policy that favors the occupying Moroccan government.

Trump gushed that he was looking forward to traveling the entire 655-mile length. That can safely be chalked up to diplomacy: it connects small, isolated desert cities in the kind of place Trump likes to refer to as a "shithole country." Also, it's extremely unlikely that he'd be physically able to sit in a car for that long.

Satellite view of the highway Morocco's government says it is naming after Trump

Why does this matter?

• It shouldn't be this easy for a foreign government to emotionally manipulate the President of the United States. 

• A desperate need to force others to recognize the supernatural greatness you think you possess is called megalomania, and it's not a sign of good mental health.