I understand why he surrounds himself in gold colored paint, and ass-kissing spectacles
It is the definition of malignant narcissism. That's who he is and always has been He doesn't own most of the buildings with his name on them. And the ones he does own are underwater. We know all this.
What makes no sense is scheduling these marathon ass-kissing sessions before cameras, knowing full well that he can't stay awake for 15 minutes. This shows that Trump has no operative executive function left in his brain. And he has nobody in his inner circle who gives a shit about protecting his image. On the contrary, everybody around him is there for their own personal reasons and will be just as happy as the rest of us when he is carted out of the WH in either a straight jacket or a coffin.
The time is approaching, and we can expect to see the long knives come out as the Vance people try to get the edge over the MIller people and the Rubio people and the Heritage people.