If Americans had eyes to see, they would see signs of a historical political transformation gripping the country. Donald J. Trump is making a serious attempt to transition the United States to kingship.
Speaking about his newly refurbished jumbo jet gift from the King of Qatar, he boasted of “a level of luxury nobody has ever seen before.” Democracy does not boast of personal regal wealth, but rather of widely distributed wealth. Our 47th “President” has been claiming shares in corporations for his administration and fashioning a public treasury of gold and silver the likes of which not even the monopolistic aristocrats and kings of ancient Egypt, the Orient, and medieval Europe have ever seen.
Accepting pretentious gifts from foreign monarchies itself is a sure sign that he has terminated the “emoluments clause” of the U.S. Constitution prohibiting the President from getting rich while in office. He has substituted instead the king’s right to unlimited personal enriching of himself both off the backs of the U.S. citizenry and through bribes from neighborly kings seeking access to those same emoluments.
President Trump treats the national treasury like a personal checking account, taxing and spending as he pleases. Remember the One Big, Beautiful Bill? He uses Congress like kings in England long used the British Parliament, as a rubber stamp for his personal funding needs and wants. To do this, he usurps the major functions of Congress and diminishes the power of the federal courts, constantly showing contempt for law and love of personal dictatorial rule.
He unilaterally makes a billion-dollar upgrade to the East Wing of the White House, effectively turning it into a fortress palace for himself and his dynastic offspring. He equips the White House with large numbers of gold-gilt objects and furnishings. He oversees the piling up of luxury estates by privileged aristocratic oligarchs and encourages interest-rate gouging of the commoner class to keep them uneducated and disenfranchised.
He puts his name on whatever public or private building or asset he can find to glorify himself, including cultural and historical landmarks, airports, bridges, arches. He also puts his graven image on coins and paper money, and whatever internet website, sign, statue, and public building he can find to enhance everlasting public worship of his majesty.
Another sure sign of monarchy is his bestowing upon himself the legal basis of kingship, which says, “The King can do no wrong.” He has accomplished this by making himself immune from prosecution for criminal offenses.
Another sign is claiming to be the spiritual leader of the nation. Trump’s purposeful donning of papal garb, his criticism of the Pope, his holding up of a Bible outside a church in D.C., and his affinity with the evangelical Christian political movement in America are signs of his spiritual ascendancy. For a king to be Lord over all, he must be Lord over the church, as in the case of kings of England asserting “royal supremacy” over the church and appointing the Archbishop of the Church of England.
To undergird his claim to God’s personal favor for his reign, he goes about looking for dragons to slay in foreign governments, like in Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, Canada, and Greenland. Any great propagandist of monarchy must convince the people he is the personification of God Almighty, who ably spreads his wings over many lands and provinces. Like Jesus himself, he is constantly implementing justice and righteousness wherever he goes and constantly working in the homeland’s best interests, the interests of “America First,” or better yet, “The King’s people first.”
A final sign of monarchy is that the king is all about the easy pathway to personal glory. Money makes everything easy. Trump uses money to get everything he wants. What is hard in politics is using law, education, and ethics. If you want something in a monarchy, you just buy it: silence through non-disclosure agreements, jobs in the administration for previous critics, benefits showered on key constituencies before elections.
Money replaces knowledge, wisdom, experience, a humanitarian soul. Money is like God, and Trump has his hands on the national treasury, so he is powerful like God.
While America is focused on affordable housing and consumer prices, professional sports, and Spider-Man, Trump is focused on making himself an immortal King.