I thought I had seen it all with Donald Trump, but his atrocious behavior in bullying the President of Ukraine in the White House went beyond the pale.

Can you imagine George Washington or Abe Lincoln, or any other President we have had, ever doing anything like this? If it were done in school, the teacher would send the student involved to the principal’s office.

Actually, it was more than bullying. President Zelensky was bushwhacked between the two hammering voices of President Trump and Vice-President Vance. This was no spontaneous, unplanned event. They were out to surprise and crush the Ukrainian President in a coordinated way.

As an American, I was ashamed and embarrassed.

To Trump though, it was a victory. “This is going to be great television,” he said. An observation that fits with his general “modus operandi.”

When Tony Schwarz ghost-wrote in 1987 the book “Art of the Deal” for Trump, the publisher showed Mr. Trump a copy of what the proposed book would look like. Trump liked it, did not comment on its content, but said: “Please make my name much bigger.” That was done on the cover, and the book became a bestseller.

The same Donald Trump, our current President, now in his first chaotic days of a second term, seems to be consistent, at least on that point. Even if the news is not good, as long as the Trump name gets top billing, it is a success.

As Schwarz said in a follow-up interview after the book was published, Trump “seemed driven entirely by a need for public attention.” After spending decades as a tabloid titan, “the only thing left was running for President. If he could run for emperor of the world, he would.”

As to that ambition, unfortunately, the President may be in for a surprise. The world is not ready for an emperor, even an American emperor. We have to hope that others in the world will arise to remind us of our democratic roots and help steer us back in the direction of responsible, representative government.

The Roman philosopher, Seneca, once wrote: “Caesar and the state are one and the same.” It was opposition to that kind of thinking that brought America into being. We didn’t want Caesar or the King of England running this country.

When asked what kind of government the Constitutional Convention had proposed, Ben Franklin is purported to have said: “A Republic if you can keep it.” Now is a time when we need to be focused on “keeping it.”

Bullying a beleaguered leader of a country that was invaded and is fighting for its life as a democracy is not the American way.

Rolland Kidder is a Stow resident and a former New York state Assemblyman.