With all due respect, the look that Prince William sported at the starry reopening of Notre-Dame in Paris this month was nothing special: a well-tailored overcoat, a dark blue tie, a pressed white shirt. And, naturally, his new beard.

But that simple outfit did not fail to wow one luminary.

“He looked really, very handsome last night,” President-elect Donald J. Trump said about the future king of England, according to The New York Post. “Some people look better in person? He looked great. He looked really nice, and I told him that.”

His praise was just the latest instance in which Mr. Trump, 78, had complimented another man’s looks, part of a larger pattern of obsession he has with the personal appearance of individuals. That includes during the presidential campaign, when Mr. Trump often waxed poetic about the pilots posted to Air Force One, during his first term, likening them to taller versions of Tom Cruise.

“These guys are specimens,” he said during a late October interview with Joe Rogan. “Like perfect specimens.”

Mr. Trump’s propensity for calling attention to men’s looks dates back decades. (He lauded his brother Fred’s handsomeness in his 1987 memoir “The Art of the Deal.”) Newspapers and other publications have also noted his own attractiveness. But his candor about male beauty has seemingly become more pronounced during his three campaigns for the presidency, most commonly arising in his freewheeling rally speeches.