What did Donald Trump do today?

He used his "executive time" to troll a small business whose owner doesn't like him.

Much of the business news around Trump in recent days has been the early warning signs of the damage his obsession with tariffs will do to large-scale businesses like manufacturers and farmers. But this morning, Trump took time off from the presidency to critique the exterior design of a 26-seat restaurant that had refused to serve his press secretary.

Trump has never visited the Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia, but lashed out at its "filthy canopies" and said that it needed a paint job. The building exterior is brick.

He also said that it was "dirty inside." In reality, the Red Hen has a stellar health inspection record. 

By contrast, the restaurant at Mar-a-Lago, where Trump is both the owner and a frequent customer, was cited at least 78 times over three years for "high priority lodging violations... which could pose a direct or significant threat to the public health, safety, or welfare." Trump's own failures as a restaurateur included storage of fresh fish at room temperature, and failure to treat sushi for parasites. Violations at other Trump restaurants number in the hundreds. Some, like the one at his Doral golf course, have been forced to shut down while they corrected health code violations, including the presence of dozens of dead cockroaches and a "slimy/mold-like build-up" in coolers.

Later in the day, Trump also attacked a very large business, Harley-Davidson, for announcing plans to move some of its production overseas in order to escape the worst effects of Trump's trade policies.

Why does this matter?

• People who tell obvious and mean-spirited lies like this will tell lies about anything.

• People who need to tell lies like this are probably too emotionally unstable to be president.

• Presidents are supposed to try to promote small businesses, not destroy them. 

• It may not be a good idea to put someone who doesn't care about serving food with parasites in it in charge of deciding what federal regulations are necessary.