Today’s “No Kings” protests will generate much of the same backlash we have seen before. People will joke that the protests have worked, because we still don’t have a king. They will tell us that it makes no sense to protest a king when one does not exist, and of course some people will tell us that such protests would not be possible is America really had a king. It’s all nonsense, of course, but that never stopped Maga before. They are nothing if not disingenuous, but they are also persistant.

Speaking of which, I don’t remember ever getting a serious answer to the question of just when Maga thinks America was great or what was so great about it?

So be it!

These are slogans, not essays. They allude to an agenda, but they do not really define it. What Maga was always telling us when they talked about Making America great again was that they wanted an America where people could and would affirm its greatness without hesitation, and without qualification. They might also have been interested in seeing great crimes committed in the name of America, but of course that too is made more possible by the grand commitment to affirm greatness regardless of details. Maga may not have been prepared to tell us what they meant by “making America great” (that would have required too much honesty for them), but they certainly did have something in mind.

So, why “No Kings?”

At its most basic level, this message is about affirming the basic principles of republican government, something the modern Republican Party is hard at work trying to destroy. The language is partly an allusion to our nations origins in opposition to a king (or at least to a certain founding document listing a host of grievances against a king instead of fielding the more tedious arguments American colonists might have had against the British Parliament). It is also an allusion to a broader sense of autocratic power clearly sought by the Trump administration, and clearly supported by the average Trump supporter. It is also meant to suggest something of the scale of Trump’s corruption, of the crises facing the nation when a President and his cronies set about deliberately dismantling the basic principles of American government.

Whether or not America was ever great, Trump means to end the nation in any meaningful sense. Whatever grievances some people may have had with business as usual in the United States, Trump is hard at work removing its virtues. He does so with the full support of flag-waving pseudo-patriots all across the country. The phrase “No Kings” is meant to convey something about this crises. If we aren’t careful, we will soon find ourselves without a republic. Whether or not that means the United States will become a monarchy is another question, but we are rapidly losing any real connection to the government once formed in opposition to King George.

The phrase “No Kings” conveys this problem and the sense of urgency that goes with it quite well!

So, what is it about Trump and the Maga movement that threatens the republic? What is it about Trump’s approach to the Presidency that suggests autocracy? In what manner is he acting more like a king than an elective representative?

This will of course be an incomplete list, but let me tell you…

• This isn’t the most serious criticism, but we could start with Trump’s penchant for leaving his mark on everything. From the “Gulf of America” to the “Trump Kennedy Center,” a Trump Coin, and apparently even a new class of battleship. And of course, there is Trump’s constant remodeling of the White House. I understand, we will now be getting Trump’s signature on our money. The problem here isn’t obvious, but suggests a deep disconnect between Trump and the very idea of a Presidency. This is not a public servant who sees himself as occupying an office. This is a man who seeks to define the office and to refine the relationship between that office and the American people in personal terms.

• Trump’s use of informal communication for official actions. People shouldn’t have to learn they have been fired over social media, nor should we see laws announced over social media, as if a post on Truth Social carried the force of law. Both of these habits indicate a profound disrespect of Trump’s own office and a disregard for the welfare of people who have to guess at how seriously they should take anything coming from the clown prince of White House shenanigans. (Also, to Hell with Elon Musk!) All of this has the effect of heightening Trump’s power by discounting the importance of procedural norms, official channels, and even common decency. Through this medium of communication, Trump is effectively telling us that he is above any standards of personal conduct, both as to chain of command and legislative and administrative procedure.

• While we are at it, the frequency with which Donald Trump makes demands of private entities is itself disturbing. Most Presidents are reluctant to criticize businesses or artists while in office. Oh they do it, yes, but the criticism is generally phrased in abstract terms, rarely naming the targets of criticism, and almost never calling for specific actions by employers. For his part, Trump is happy to call for the firing of this or that actor.

• On a more serious note: Trump’s penchant for directing the prosecution of his political enemies is a serious breach of justice. Under Donald Trump, the independence of the Department of Justice simply does not exist, and the agency serves as a personal asset for Donald Trump himself. This is not what President’s do. This is what kings do. It’s what tyrants do.

• Trump’s penchant for using executive orders to govern. This is a frequent bone of contention for most any President over the last few decades, not that all the complains are equally valid, but it is particularly disturbing to see a President rely on Executive Orders when he has majority in Congress. This is somebody who could get the legislation he wants with a little effort and some effective negotiation, but the so-called author of “The Art of the Deal” isn’t interested in making deals anymore. He wants to rule by fiat. So, Trump rules by Executive Order, even in contexts that would clearly call for actual legislation.

• The fact that we are even talking about a third term for Donald Trump is unbelievable. The Constitution states quite clearly that nobody can be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and yet the Trump camp consistently tells us they mean to get him a 3rd term. This too indicates a clear lack of respect for the Constitution as a whole, and particularly for the limitations it places on a President. This is one more respect in which Donald Trump has shown us all that he will not be limited to terms of a Presidency. He will do as he wishes and that is that.

• Trump’s use of his office to create a Board of Peace, an organization of which is now the permanent head illustrates once again the degree to which he seeks power outside the scope of the Presidency. That this Board will have nothing to do with peace doesn’t help matters, but it is an office that conflicts with Trump’s responsibilities as President.

• The mere fact that Trump never did create the kind of blind trust politicians normally use to shield themselves from conflicts of interest is already a problem. We are told that his business is now managed by his children, but his children have been actively involved in his administration, and they have never hidden the degree to which they discuss business with him. Simply put, this means that Trump’s actions at any given time are as much about his personal business as they are about the United States. No, that is not how a President operates. It is in fact how a number of monarchs operate.

• Do I even have to mention the mention the likelihood of insider trading?

• The degree to which Trump has worked bribery into his policies is astounding. Time and again, donations to Trump’s campaigns, purchases of Trump currency, and concessions to Trump’s frivolous lawsuits have come before decisions benefiting private parties. The shear number of criminals who have been pardoned by Trump (and often absolved thereby of the obligation to repay their victims) in the wake of some such purchase or donation is incredible. Nations have found their tariffs lowered after such exchanges, an of course business deals requiring approval of the President have followed legal settlements. Anyone who cannot see the corruption in all of this is willfully blind! This is not public service. This is an autocrat using public office to enrich himself, his family, and his inner circle.

• The Trump camp made no secret of their intent to eliminate professionals throughout the Federal Bureaucracy and replace them with partisan loyalists. They did just that. This too reflects the difference between a President who manages a range of public institutions intended to work for the benefit of the American people and an autocrat who leads a following loyal to him, one expected to answer to his every whim regardless of legality or consequences. Once again, this is not how Presidents relate to the institutions of government. It is how cult leaders relate to their followers.

• I’ve been putting off the topic of ICE, because it’s a whole lot of abuses bundled into one instrument of domestic terrorism. Whatever ICE once was, whatever it did to enforce America’s immigration laws, it is now an instrument of terror consciously used to frighten a broad range of people, including legal immigrants and U.S. Citizens as well as entire communities Trump clearly regards as political enemies. The rhetoric behind this is anti-immigrant, but the practice has been far broader. At this point, ICE is simply an instrument of terror.
  • We can begin with Kavanaugh stops, or the decision by the Supreme Court to allow detention of anyone reasonably suspected of being in the country illegally. In practice, this has been a blank check allowing ICE to detain people on the basis nothing more than racial profiling, and if detention might have meant stopping someone for question (a practice which is already problematic), it has clearly become a cover for actual arrest. Never mind that! Kidnapping. That’s what ICE now does. Trump’s faithful still talk about this as immigration enforcement, but millions of U.S. citizens now live in real fear that they will end up in a concentration camp without any opportunity to present their documentation, without access to a lawyer, and without any means of connecting to their families.
  • Add to this the fact that ICE facilities are producing a rather high body count with plenty of stories emerging about failure to feed prisoners or provide proper sanitation, or medical care.
  • Use of prisons in foreign countries has one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to circumvent U.S. Law. It is a means of removing people from access to legal recourse and placing them in a location where they can be tortured and even killed far from the eyes of the American public. When question arise as to due process violations, we are told immigration proceedings are subject to the standards of civil due process, and no mention is made of the fact that this civil procedure somehow landed people directly in prisons to horrible to be found on American soil. …so far, anyway. The sheer glee with which Maga described “Alligator Alcatraz” should tell us all we need to know about their intentions. If they get their way, America’s private prisons will one day become the center of an industrial slave complex that would be the envy of the old Nazi movement.
  • And then of course there is the Trump camps attempts to use ICE warrants to enter houses and private businesses. This kind of general warrant bears direct comparison to the Writs of Assistance which helped give rise to the American Revolution. Yet another respect in which Trump is closer to a King than a President.
  • What Trump has done with ICE is to turn that organization into a private army. The newly lowered standards of hire for ICE agents and lower standards of training help him to do as he will with this private army because these measures ensure the absence of professionals who know the difference between law enforcement and domestic terrorism. Real professionals say ‘no’ to corrupt officials, and Trump will not tolerate such people. ICE answers to him and to him alone at this point, and there doesn’t seem to be anybody willing to stop them.

There is course a lot more to be said about this matter, but I am going to hit “Publish” at this point. Please feel free to add any issues I have left out in the comments below.

In any event, I think it should be perfectly clear as to why people would be comparing Trump to a King. We know very well that he didn’t inherit his office, but we also know very well that Trump’s actions are closer to those of a king than they are to an elected official. Right wingers can play all the word games they want, but today’s protests are well named. The phrasing is as much a defense of the republic we are supposed to have as it is a protest against the regime modern Republicans mean to place it with.

Note the pictures are from the No Kings Protest at Homer, AK. They come complements of my wife who is there now. I wish I could be there with her, and with the other protesters.

To say “No Kings!”