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He has difficulty seeing a gift for what it is, which is why he feels entitled rather than grateful for any kindness shown to him.

His determination to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey is but the latest example of this.

Trump loudly, repeatedly and determinedly demanded that Comey be prosecuted. The president has been less than specific on what grounds the former FBI chief might be found criminally liable.

But because Trump has stacked his cabinet and the top positions in the U.S. Justice Department with trained poodles eager to obey his every command, he got his wish. Even though almost every experienced attorney in the Justice Department advised against prosecuting Comey, the president found at least one who was willing to waste time and taxpayer money on what promises to be a stupid fight.

And a compliant grand jury issued an indictment so thin on specific charges that it’s almost anorexic.

The validity of Trump’s case against Comey, though, is in many ways beside the point.

This president is far from a legal scholar and has the same regard for the rule of law that a dog does for a fire hydrant, but he’s smart enough to know that there’s little chance Jim Comey will end up spending time behind bars when this is done.

What the indictment will do, though, is force Comey to spend a lot of money defending himself against whatever spurious charges and his eager-to-please prosecutors conjure up.

Comey doubtless is comfortable by the average American’s standards, but he’ll be decidedly less so when he finishes paying lawyers $800 to $1000 per hour to defend him for months. Trump will be able to punish without ever winning in court—and send a signal to all others who might criticize the thin-skinned president that they could be next on the docket.

There’s irony here.

A compelling argument can be advanced that Donald Trump never would have been elected president in the first place—and, frankly, might have seen his brand damaged fatally—if Jim Comey hadn’t thrown him a lifeline.

In October of 2016, Trump’s presidential campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton was flailing.

A recording of an old interview for the program “Access Hollywood” had surfaced. In it, Trump boasted about sexually assaulting women in the crudest possible terms.

The response to the revelations was swift and intense.

Even though the general election was only a month away, Republican leaders publicly explored the possibility of dumping Trump from the top of the ticket and replacing him with GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence. They were willing to write off the presidential race to try to salvage the U.S. Senate and other down-ballot races.

Trump held on, in part because no one—including Pence—was eager to step up and play sacrificial lamb.

But everyone assumed Trump would take a beating on Election Day.

Then along came Comey.

Eleven days before voters went to the polls, Comey decided—in violation of FBI practice and precedents—to announce that Clinton was under investigation for allegedly mishandling classified emails when she was U.S. secretary of state.

Worse, Comey also decided not to reveal that Trump’s campaign also was under investigation for possible collusion with Russian operatives who were intent on sabotaging the American election.

The cloud Comey cast over Clinton’s campaign, while at the same time giving Trump a free pass, had an impact. Pollsters afterward said it decided the election in Trump’s favor.

It wouldn’t have taken much.

Trump trailed Clinton by 3 million ballots in the popular vote. If two votes per precinct in three key swing states had shifted, Clinton would have captured the Electoral College and Donald Trump would have been struggling to resuscitate his reputation.

Comey has tried to evade responsibility for his decision.

His 2018 book “A Higher Loyalty” drowns in preening, sanctimonious self-justification. One thinks the former FBI director doth protest too much.

But any judgment Comey faces should be delivered by history, not the courts.

And certainly not Donald Trump, who likely would have been a footnote in texts documenting U.S. history in the early 21^st century if not for Comey’s intervention in the campaign.

But that’s how it is with Trump.

He finds favors easy to forget.

Slights, real or imagined—not so much.