Meet the Faux King, the Successor to “Mad King” George III
If you doubt that President Trump considers himself beyond reproach, just note two recent Trump declarations.
On August 22, Trump proclaimed (falsely), “I am actually the chief law enforcement officer” of the United States.
On August 26, Trump proclaimed (again falsely) that he has “the right to do anything I want to do. I’m the president of the United States.”
What better way to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our independence next year than with a new faux king to succeed “Mad King” George III.
As J. Michael Luttig, the respected former Court of Appeals Judge, has put it, “The president’s utter contempt for the Constitution and laws of the United States has been on spectacular display since Inauguration Day.”
Here is what a faux king does:
- Governs by an unprecedented number of executive orders, regardless of whether they are constitutional or legal.
- Defies judicial decisions and ignores court orders.
- Overrides the Constitution’s separation of powers by controlling a rubber-stamp Congress and an obsequious Supreme Court.
- Rips off the presidency to grab vast amounts of personal wealth – an estimated $3.4 billion during his second term. Establishes government policies that greatly benefit his holdings.
- Lies incessantly, calls the Epstein/Maxwell scandal a Democratic hoax as women tell their stories of being raped and sexually abused as minor girls by Epstein and Maxwell
- Harasses and intimidates perceived adversaries; investigates, indicts, and prosecutes perceived opponents.
- Exercises absolute control over the Justice Department, the FBI, and the national security agencies to conduct a revenge, retaliation, and retribution campaign.
- Ignores the Posse Comitatus Act, sends the military into blue cities with Black mayors to improperly carry out civilian enforcement activities.
And if you think that’s bad, in the words of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet.”
Faux King Trump likes to play the “A lot of people are saying,” game, planting ideas when he has nothing to support them. Recently Trump said, “A lot of people are saying, maybe we’d like a dictator,” and then denied he was a dictator.
In fact, a poll of the American people conducted in April by the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute found that a majority of Americans agreed that Trump “is a dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy.”
Today we have a Republican-controlled Congress that acts terrified of Trump and pretty much does everything he commands.
We have a Republican-appointed Supreme Court majority that stands silent as Trump and his followers attack courageous lower court judges who repeatedly rule against Trump. Hundreds of cases have been brought to challenge the legality or constitutionality of Trump administration actions.
The Supreme Court majority created the circumstances in which Trump believes he can do anything he wants without consequence.
In Trump v. United States Chief Justice Roberts’ opinion established the principle that presidents have criminal immunity, thereby shattering a foundational principle that no person is above the law. It’s one of the worst decisions in Supreme Court history. Roberts also wrote that presidents have “exclusive authority over the investigative and prosecutorial functions of the Justice Department and its officials.”
With those words, the Roberts majority opinion gave dictatorial powers to Trump to control the Justice Department and the FBI: including carrying out his vicious, vengeful retaliation campaign against his adversaries.
Fortunately, as the No Kings nationwide protest showed in June, and protests showed on Labor Day, citizens are unwilling to accept Trump’s abuses of power.
The Founders warned about another king and took steps to prevent it. Thomas Paine, known to some as the Father of the American Revolution, wrote in Common Sense in 1776, “For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other.”
Indeed, we fought and won a revolution to establish the norm that no king rules here. As we head into our country’s 250th anniversary, the American people are ready to fight to continue our great experiment in liberty and equality.
They are not about to let a faux king replace the oldest democracy in the world.
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Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s newsletter, and other recent editions, here. And subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.
