New York Times columnist Roger Cohen on Monday likened the White House staff to a 16th Century Italian comedy, and said Trump would best be portrayed by a character who pretends to be well endowed.

“The president, at 71, is clearly a ‘vecchio,’ or elder,” wrote Cohen. “He is probably best imagined as the miserly Venetian known as Pantalone wandering around in red breeches with the oversized codpiece of the would-be womanizer. … The key to understanding him is probably that oversize codpiece.”

On the same day, David Brooks, also a Times columnist, said that the Trump administration “certainly giving us an education in the varieties of wannabe manliness” and that the president demeanor is a “parody of manliness.”