Sitting between four lanes of Olympia traffic during the 3rd No Kings Day since Mr. Trump’s return to The People’s House, 75-year-old Carol Shore held up a book entitled “America: A Patriot’s Handbook” in her left hand. Comprised of more than fifty documents that celebrate this country as the land of liberty and freedom, there appears The Constitution of the United States of America. In her right hand she steadied a cardboard sign which in black letters read, “So … How is this working for you?”
Looking across the street at several thousand individuals who had gathered on the Washington State Capitol campus to protest Donald Trump’s monarchical ambitions, Shore said, “That man is ruining this country, and he is ignoring the Constitution and what it stands for. He’s the problem; not those of us gathered in peaceful protest.”
Elizabeth Willing Powel would be exploding with admiration of not only of Shore and her sentiments but also at the millions of individuals across the nation who attended rallies this past October to peacefully assemble and express their opposition to Trump’s on-going attempts to circumvent America’s republican form of governance and become its first king.
Powel – a prominent socialite who during the Constitutional Convention had opened her home to delegates and their families – asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”
Franklin’s response rings as true then as it does now – “A republic, madam, if you can keep it.”
Can we keep it, or will this country become a monarchy?
In response to that Saturday in October in which millions of Americans took part in “No Kings” protests, Trump and Mr. Vance posted AI memes to social media (Truth Social and Bluesky, respectively) depicting the former wearing a crown while flying a fighter jet emblazoned with the words “King Trump” while appearing to dump raw sewage on protesters.
In Vance’s posting, prominent Democrats kneel as supplicants in a royal court before Trump, portrayed as a divine and absolute ruler.
To date, Trump has not used the literal phrase “I want to be king;” however, these recent actions and posts – let’s also not forget the June 18, 2025 Time Magazine cover of him looking in a mirror and seeing himself as a king – represent an authoritarian symbolism that has led him to clearly expand executive power.
Since reoccupying – and remodeling – The People’s House, the Supreme Court has upheld the majority of the executive orders Trump has issued. The court allowed him to decimate the federal bureaucracy, fire the heads of independent agencies and exercise sweeping powers and responsibilities ascribed only to Congress. Can President-Wanting-To-Be-King Trump be stopped?
This was the question before the nine justices when they heard arguments in November on the legality of many of Mr. Trump’s tariffs – the first case to reach the court in a queue of challenges to his sweeping claims of authority.
And there is more to come.
In December, the high court will weigh the pros and cons of whether or not to strike down an almost century old precedent (Humphrey’s Executor v. United States – 1935) that protects independent agencies from presidential interference. In January of the new year, the court will explore whether Mr. Trump and his enablers (Steve Bannon, Russ Voegler, Scott Bessett and various Members of Congress) can remake the Federal Reserve, with its great power over the economy – and thus our standard of living.
This docket of cases will highlight the extent to which the Supreme Court has – or has not – embraced Trump’s view of a presidency characterized by few checks and utilizing the kind of authority that can only be described a monarchial.
Decisions on these three cases are expected by the summer.
But in the meantime, we would all do well to remember and, if need be, act on what retired King County Superior Court Judge John Erlick said on that Saturday morning in downtown Olympia that found Carol Shore holding up in traffic a book containing the Constitution of the United States, “When the rule of law falters … tyranny moves in.”
Tyranny wears the clothing of monarchy.
Be First to Comment