Some Americans have said it’s okay that Trump is effectively America’s king. After all, according to a 2017 survey, some 23 million Americans believe chocolate comes from brown cows.
The idea that he is America’s first de facto king is not too far off the beaten track. He now has the benefit of a recent US Supreme Court ruling, viz US presidents can’t be held criminally accountable for their illegal acts occurring in the course of their “official” conduct.
No doubt, the Trump Administration sees it as, in effect, bestowing upon him what a king is entitled to, viz immunity from having to comply with the law. Further, whether wannabe king or just a dictator, as the US president he has wide powers to pardon other people for any wrongdoing. There is a possibility he may even be able to pardon himself.
Since 20 January, he has (through executive orders and other actions) taken steps to effectively remake the US Government. Its intended effect is to make him America’s first ever de facto king. For example: he’s reducing the size of the 2.2 million-strong federal US workforce (established since 1871) by sacking its workers; he’s eliminating the Federal Education Department; he’s eliminating the US Aid Agency (USAID) which for years (amongst other activities) had been the main body handing out much-needed aid around the world; and he is establishing a de facto and unconstitutional so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” which includes controlling Treasury payment systems.
These are part of various steps being taken to get rid of long established democratic “checks and balances” that ensure no one branch of government becomes too powerful. He is even firing government watchdogs and replacing them with a new system where only his personal supporters run all state institutions. This involves getting rid of those regarded as not “faithful” to him or not supportive of the way he wants to govern the country.
To ensure everybody in government is personally loyal to him as their de facto king, he’s dismantling the FBI and purging its career employees. He fired all six of the most senior FBI career (non-political) officials and multiple other senior officials across the country on that basis. He’s even getting rid of generals and admirals not prepared to swear personal loyalty to him. He is also changing the independent Department of Justice into his own personal “Political Enforcement Weapon.” He has fired multiple federal prosecutors involved in investigating and prosecuting his supporters during the 6 January insurgency. He has also threatened the media with lawsuits for publishing reports he does not like.
Trump’s executive powers are also being expanded. He made a sweeping White House order to freeze federal grants and allocations after having previously issued a wide-ranging federal hiring freeze. To him, some federal funds are wasted on matters he does not approve of, such as, for example, transgenderism and green new deal social engineering policies.
All these actions are part of what’s prescribed in “Project 2025”, a blueprint for a conservative administration carved out by the right-wing Heritage Foundation. It sets out to make the entire executive branch of the US Government under the complete control of Trump as de facto king of the US and in disregard of the rule of law. That is in contrast to what it has been for decades where Congress, not the presidency, is the most powerful branch of government in that it had almost all the important powers, viz to pass laws, levy taxes, and declare war. In contrast, the job of the president is mainly administrative, viz to implement the laws.
More recently, it looks like he’s is also trying to be, in effect, king of cuckoo land. He shocked the world by saying he wants to take over the Panama Canal, Canada and Greenland and to turn the Gulf of Mexico into “America’s gulf”. He has also indicated he wants to take over Ukraine’s rare earth minerals.
Also, his total commitment to support Israel is shown in his sanctioning the International Criminal Court of Justice for wanting to arrest the Israeli prime minister. Worse, in particular for the Arab world, he’s said he could “take over” and “own” and develop the completely devastated Palestinian Gaza strip into the Riviera of the Middle East. To him, all Palestinians there are to be expelled to Egypt or any other country he thinks should accept these people. (Trump: “They are not going … back to Gaza”). He seems indifferent that he’s showing the US is indeed complicit in the ongoing Gaza genocide.
To the great embarrassment of millions of Americans, not only does Trump keep contradicting lots of what he’s said; his false claims or disinformation now form an embarrassingly long and growing list in Wikipedia under the title “False or misleading statements by Donald Trump”. A September 2024 survey showed 57% of Americans say his claims are rarely or never based on facts.
Many more Americans are beginning to realise that, far from “making America great again”, Trump and his supportive billionaires (the super-rich oligarchs of the country) are ripping off the rest of the population.
Indeed, there are early signs his attempt to turn the US into a despotic government may lead to many good Americans rising up to get rid of him as president. A nationwide protest has already been organised for 2 May. It may well escalate into an uprising as many Americans know this: the Declaration of Independence, upon which the US was founded, explicitly says when a government becomes “despotic” and repeatedly abuses its power, it is the “right” and “duty” of the people to “throw off such government” and establish a new one to protect their security.
The scary part is that the 2nd Amendment gives Americans the right to keep and bear arms. In effect, many good people may die as a consequence.
Gim Teh
Gim Teh is a retired Australian law academic and a former member of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. He has an interest in misinformation and imperialism and has written about US-Australia-China relationship.