President Donald Trump on Wednesday took time out from prepping for his high-stakes summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin to make an announcement.  

KISS, the glam-metal band that gave us “Calling Dr. Love” and other tunes with more unsavory titles, will receive the Kennedy Center Honors, the president said, in a televised ceremony that he, the most powerful leader in the free world, plans to host himself.  

You could argue that few moments during his tumultuous second term better encapsulated the way Trump swings between the momentous and the theatrical, often in practically the same breath.  

All eyes will be on Trump and Putin on Friday in Alaska, when the two sit down to discuss how to wind up the three-year war in Ukraine. (Much to his frustration, the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who may be asked to fork over some territory to secure a peace deal, was not invited.)  

But Trump hasn’t exactly been keeping his eye on the ball this week. Instead, he has displayed his propensity for micro-management, injecting himself into all manner of things ranging from corporate governance to D.C. street crime, to ensuring museum exhibits are “historically accurate.” 

As Reuters White House Correspondent Jeff Mason detailed, Trump seems to toggle between big-picture business (peace deals! tariffs!) and weighing in on the small-bore controversies of the moment (Sydney Sweeney! The name of the Washington NFL team!). But there were also signs this week that he is taking unprecedented steps to assert his authority in ways no other modern president has attempted.  

On Monday, he declared his administration was seizing control of the Washington, D.C., police department and deploying National Guard troops to the city to combat what he claimed – without supporting data – was out-of-control crime and violence. Democrats called it political theater and worried other Democrat-run cities would also soon fall under Trump’s thumb. (Although some D.C. residents welcomed the beefed-up security.)  

The White House also said it would begin to review exhibitions at the Smithsonian museums to see if they align with Trump’s “anti-woke” worldview. 

On the corporate front, Trump has demanded the resignation of the CEO of Intel, Lip Bu-Tan, contending he was too close to Chinese industry—but then sat down with Tan and called the meeting “interesting.” He lashed out at the CEO of Goldman Sachs, David Solomon, over the bank’s prediction that Trump’s tariffs would damage the economy, questioning whether Solomon should remain in charge.  

He also reached a deal with chip-maker Nvidia that gave the U.S. government a cut of all chip sales to China, an arrangement that alarmed lawmakers and national-security analysts. 

The capper to the president’s busy few days came on Wednesday, when he headed over to the Kennedy Center in Washington and personally revealed the artists who would be celebrated at the institution’s annual gala as if he were back on NBC’s “The Apprentice.” Trump said he was reluctant to host even though he was told he would get big ratings. 

Critics have suggested Trump lacks the kind of focus befitting the leader of the world’s largest power, but as it turns out, the president believes he may not need to do that much advance work ahead of the Putin meeting. He has said that he will need “two minutes” or so to size up whether Putin is serious about peace. And he has worked steadily to lower expectations for the Alaskan confab, describing it as a “listening exercise” that may lead to further meetings, this time involving Zelenskiy.  

Who knows? If things go well, Putin could end up as Trump’s guest at the Kennedy Center Honors in December. Now, that would be must-see TV. 

Do you agree or disagree with the following: The country is in a crisis and needs a strong president who should be allowed to rule without too much interference from courts and Congress.

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Some residents of England’s bucolic Cotswolds region were none too happy to find Vice President JD Vance vacationing in their midst, and they let him know about it. On Tuesday, several dozen people, including local activists, gathered in the town of Charlbury to stage what they called a "Not Welcome Party" while a van featuring an unflattering and manipulated image of a bald Vance drove around.