There’s humor, however bitter, in the opening paragraph of the Times’s “back story” on Trump’s trip to El Paso.

By the time President Trump arrived in El Paso on Wednesday, on the second leg of a trip to meet with people affected by mass shootings in two cities, he was frustrated that his attacks on his political adversaries had resulted in more coverage than the cheery reception he received at a hospital in Dayton, Ohio, the first stop on his trip. So he screamed at his aides to begin producing proof that in El Paso people were happy to see him.

I can’t help laughing. It’s awful, but it’s also funny. He was frustrated that his own bad behavior drew more coverage than the cheery reception he got. Whose fault does he think that is, exactly? Is he fuming that the Fake Media Enemy of the People reported his own words and deeds?

Anyway, that explains why those terrible photos were shoved at us.

One of those people was Tito Anchondo, who had lost his brother and sister-in-law, Andre and Jordan Anchondo, when a gunman opened fire on a Walmart last Saturday and killed 22 people. Mr. Anchondo traveled to the University Medical Center of El Paso on Wednesday to meet Mr. Trump, and as the president stood by and flashed a thumbs-up during a White House photo opportunity, the first lady, Melania Trump, cradled Mr. Anchondo’s 2-month-old nephew, whose parents had both been gunned down.

By Friday, the photo had been widely disseminated after it became clear that the infant had lost his parents in a mass shooting, and had been brought back to the hospital after being discharged earlier in the week.

Brought back to be a photo op for Donnie and Mel.

The episode was one result of Mr. Trump’s frustration over his news coverage and of the angry reaction that by the end of the trip had led to a mishmash of White House-distributed photographs, tweets and videos that focused on the president instead of people affected by the shootings.

Neither a normal president (not that we really have many of those) nor a decent human being would have put concern about the publicity ahead of concern about the people shattered by what had just happened to them…but our Donnie has his own special priorities.

Mr. Trump first became aware of the negative headlines watching television aboard Air Force One, and bellowed at the small coterie of advisers traveling with him, including Mick Mulvaney, his acting chief of staff. He was especially upset after he saw footage of a news conference held by Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, and Mayor Nan Whaley of Dayton, a Democrat, but no positive images of himself while visiting Dayton’s Miami Valley Hospital. Not long afterward, his aides began distributing photos and video of the president at the hospital flanked by selfie-taking doctors and nurses.

Baby must be appeased.

Mr. Trump’s staff had kept reporters away from the president during his visit to avoid overwhelming patients recovering from the shooting, according to three people briefed on what took place. But when Mr. Trump saw the result, he was furious.

Naturally. Who cares about a bunch of fucking patients when Donnie’s in the house? What’s the matter with everyone?

Aides have long said that Mr. Trump is heavily reactive to news coverage, and when he does something that he believes he should have been praised for — such as Wednesday’s visits to the cities — he grows furious when he does not receive accolades. But he has not adjusted his often casual approach to tragedy, including his penchant for flashing a thumbs-up sign in photographs.

He thinks he deserved praise for going to Dayton and El Paso, and he thinks it’s reprehensible that he was denied it. It’s hard to take in that level of childish selfism in a 73 year old head of state.

Joe Lockhart, who served as press secretary to President Bill Clinton when he traveled to visit families of 13 people killed in the 1999 Columbine shooting in Littleton, Colo., said that Mr. Trump’s approach — namely his administration’s effort to showcase support for him — had failed the victims. He called the videos that Mr. Scavino distributed “disgusting.”

“If, in my readout, I said, ‘Oh, people just warmed up to the president, and they just loved him,’” Mr. Lockhart said, “I would have had my office cleaned out that afternoon.”

But now we do things differently.