The British monarch came before Congress to jointly celebrate the 250th anniversary of the former American colonies throwing off his “five-times-great-grandfather” to become the independent United States. But the speech by King Charles III was enough to make Americans want to swap their current president, a wannabe king, for the real thing again.
Just kidding, of course. Yet Charles, in his 28-minute homage on Wednesday to the two countries’ shared ideals and tenets — democracy, the rule of law and checks and balances on executive power by an independent judiciary and legislature — and his affirmation of the mutual benefits of alliances like NATO, free trade, diversity and action against climate change, delivered the sort of stirring performance that President Trump is incapable of. And not just because Trump lacks the king’s eloquence, but because he is daily attacking the very legacies that Charles honored.
It took a king to remind a shamedly complicit Republican-controlled Congress that its constitutional role, drawn by America’s founders from the Magna Carta, is to ensure that U.S. governance is “not by the will of one, but by the deliberation of many, representing the living mosaic of the United States.” (Democrats led the standing ovation.)
For The One’s part, meanwhile, the White House after the speech posted a photo of Trump and Charles labeled “TWO KINGS,” with an emoji of a bejeweled crown. I know, I know — it was the usual sort of Trumpian joke to own the libs. But it wasn’t funny. Nor was Jimmy Kimmel’s joke last week about Melania Trump having “a glow like an expectant widow.” But that sure didn’t justify King Donald and his court threatening Disney’s ABC station licenses, again, to get Kimmel’s employer to fire him.
Last fall it was public revulsion at such a heavy-handed attack against Kimmel and free speech more broadly that forced Trump and Disney to back off. And now, after months more of Trump’s abuses of power — deadly violence by federal immigration agents; military strikes against alleged drug-running boats; the Versailles-ification of the White House; mounting evidence of Trump family self-enrichment; and an unauthorized, two-month-old war on Iran — it seems the American public has really tired of Trump’s self-aggrandizing strong-man schtick.
Perhaps it was his nightmarish polls of late that had the president awake at 4 a.m. on Wednesday. At that predawn hour he sought to burnish his tough-guy aura, posting a warning to Iran: “NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!” The words captioned an AI-generated photo of Trump in aviator sunglasses with an assault rifle, as explosions burst in a mountain redoubt behind him.
Few are fooled. On Monday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz decried Trump’s Mideast miscalculation and fruitless negotiations with Iran: “An entire nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership.” But what’s more important for the future is Americans’ own disparagement of their president, and the fact that a growing majority of Americans see Trump as a cartoonish caricature of himself. And that includes some of his own voters.
Take heart in that, because this blowback suggests the country’s reclamation of the foundational values and aspirations that Charles eulogized. And that, not cage-fighting on the White House lawn or a triumphal arch, is how to mark the nation’s semiquincentennial of independence.
Trump will never face the voters again. But for him to be discredited so widely is to help ensure that the Trump line of would-be MAGA heirs ends with him.
Poll after poll in recent days showed the president’s approval rating at new lows, not only for him in both of his terms but also for any modern president at this stage of his administration. His polling average is now below 40% for the first time; in some polls, he is in the low 30s. Voters overwhelmingly disapprove of his handling of major issues, including the economy, war and immigration. Trump went to war with Iran, breaking a signature campaign promise, without the usual rally-round polling bump that presidents tend to enjoy when the U.S. goes to war, and he’s lost ground since.
The one-way trend seems likely to continue, ominously for Republicans who’ll stand as Trump’s proxies in November’s midterm elections.
Trump is so drunk with power, and so cocooned in a bubble of bootlickers, that he gives no sign of altering the behavior and policies that are repelling his constituents. Instead he persists in a costly war, pooh-poohs the resulting higher gas prices, taxes Americans further with tariffs, prosecutes his political enemies, alienates allies — not least Britain, hence Charles’ goodwill tour — and slaps his gilt, name and/or photo (his mugshot, no less!) on everything from buildings to U.S. passports and National Park passes.
Of a dozen Trump voters the New York Times featured this week after they participated in an earlier focus group, every one harshly criticized him. Nine had buyer’s remorse. Even a Maryland Republican named Michelle who was among the three who didn’t say they regret their votes lamented, “I feel foolish,” and wondered what might have been “if Trump would have approached the country and the problems that the nation has been having as passionately as he had his personal vendettas.”
The next day, Tuesday, the Justice Department for a second time indicted former FBI director and Trump nemesis James Comey on Trumped-up grounds, pun intended, having failed in a first such attempt last year.
“It’s something new every week,” Daniel from California complained in that New York Times group. “DOGE, Venezuela, immigration, Iran … feuding with the pope.” Nancy from Arizona bemoaned: “I was hoping that Congress and other branches would keep him in check, and that he’d have better advisers. … It’s just total chaos.” “A horror movie,” Jose from Florida offered.
Nancy complained about Trump’s fixation with building a ballroom. And speaking of tone-deafness, this week several of Trump’s Senate sycophants proposed to have taxpayers, not private donors, pick up the $400 million tab.
The trouble for Republicans is, Americans aren’t buying — not a ballroom, nor Trump’s other kingly designs.
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