Checkmate on the King

Limiting the unitary executive for both present and future.

On February 19^th, 2025, the White House’s official account on X posted an illustration of a coronated President Donald Trump captioned by “Long Live the King.” That same weekend, during CPAC in Washington, DC, Trump even alluded to a willingness to serve as president in 2028, which would exceed the constitutional limit of two terms as imposed by Amendment 22.

True to form, critics outpoured their indignation onto the interwebs. On February 24^th, 2025, MSNBC’s Ali Veshi declared that the USA was moving “closer to autocracy.” A true blast from the past, 2020’s presidential hopeful Dr. Jo Jorgensen even emerged on February 20^th from who-knows-where to remind us that the USA is actually a republic, just in case anyone forgot. The criticism overall was largely dignified but had all the same effect as widely memed protesters, futilely howling at the sky.

The rest of us see Trump’s official communications for what they are: puffery and tact. Since 2015, we have watched him play 4-D underwater blindfolded upside-down Houdini-shackled chess. We know that he is rage-baiting his way into progressivist media, which would otherwise prefer to ignore him, as it colluded to do in 2021 after J/6. Trump is cross-trolling them to seize headlines and dominate their newsfeeds, yet oblivious progressives still hungrily gobble Trump’s guck, and in the process reveal how woefully out of synch they are with the rest of this country.

For example, take the recent opprobrium against Trump on charges of aspiring to monarchy. MSNBC excoriates him in reference to the White House’s “monarchist” post of February 19^th, completely forgetting that just one month earlier, on the very day of Trump’s inauguration, MSNBC’s editorialist Hayes Brown denounced Trump for being kingly on a “march to tyranny.” The article was published at 1:15pm on January 20^th - well before Trump’s first batch of executive orders (more about those in a moment). Thus, the article smacks of sour grapes. In essence, progressivist journalism demanded an archvillain, and the Donald – ever the showman – obliged in iconography by donning a crown.

Instead of figuratively hanging a crown on Trump’s head, progressivist media should hang its hat on the President’s rampant executive orders. These, more than anything, are monarchical in effect since they make sweeping changes at the stroke of a pen. Considering that Trump’s Republican Party controls both chambers of the U.S. Congress, much of what Trump is effectuating by these near-royal decrees could potentially be promulgated by the citizenry’s representatives in Congress. It would take longer, but it would also make these changes more enduring since congressional legislation – as a clearer gauge of the vox populi -- is resistant to repeal.

Of course, progressivist media avoids raising this issue because it would reveal how progressivist executives exploit this kingly power according to their own preferences. The Gray Lady got her knickers in a knot about Trump’s order to re-brand the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” (Wagner, J., “‘Gulf of America’? Here’s What Mexicans and Cubans Think.” January 28^th, 2025) However, they seemed not to complain much when President Barack Obama dishonored his assassinated predecessor William McKinley’s memory by changing the eponymous Alaskan mountain’s name after 119 years to “Denali” via executive order in 2015. Maybe progressives' double standards just mean they have twice as many!

After seeing six whole states flipped red from 2020 to 2024 (Maguire, P., “See Which States Trump Won in 2024 that He Didn’t Win in 2020.” CBS News, November 9^th, 2024) along with losing 6.2 million blue votes from 2020’s presidential election (Ballotpedia.org), now is when the Left should be introspective about the presidency in general. The unitary executive is too much power concentrated in one person’s hands. Instead of one individual imposing his way on all the country, ideally the executive’s powers should be divested to the barest constitutional minimums. Instead of progressives denouncing state nullification and interposition, progressives should realize that these measures offer safeguards against a “demagogic” executive in violation of the federal constitution. If progressives leave the presidency imbued with so much power in hopes of exercising it for their own objectives someday, then they run the risk that such power will be turned against them when another Trump-figure ascends to the role.

Just like kingship inherited as an heirloom, there’s nothing to say that this country won’t elect a Trump for 2028 in the person of Don Jr.