A fondness for regal themes was apparent as the president applauded his administration’s move to kill congestion pricing in New York.The New York TimesBy Benjamin OreskesFeb. 19, 2025President Trump is famous for his love of everything gold and other trappings that connote royalty, whether it be large military parades or extravagant inaugural balls.But in a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Wednesday, Mr. Trump went a step further, likening himself to a king as he celebrated his administration’s move to kill New York City’s congestion pricing program.“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED,” he wrote. “LONG LIVE THE KING!”The White House then reinforced the message, recirculating it on Instagram and X with an illustration of Mr. Trump wearing a crown on a magazine cover resembling Time, but called Trump.
And it isn't just this one time, he has made reference to other "royal decrees"
And just last week, the president made clear that he believed he had broad leeway to reshape the government in any way he saw fit.“He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media, apparently referencing a version of something Napoleon Bonaparte may have said. The origin though is unclear.By killing congestion pricing, Mr. Trump suggested he was saving New York.
‘Long live the king’: Trump adds monarch rhetoric to actionsTrump has already sought to test the limits of executive power.NBC NewsBy Angela YangFebruary 19, 2025President Donald Trump is branding himself a monarch.The president of the United States made an unprecedented declaration on Wednesday while applauding his administration’s decision to terminate federal approval of New York’s congestion pricing program.“CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED,” Trump wrote on his social platform Truth Social. “LONG LIVE THE KING!”The official White House social media accounts on X, Instagram and Facebook soon quoted his post, all sharing a fake magazine cover depicting an illustration of Trump smiling in a suit — and wearing a bejeweled golden crown. In the corner of the magazine cover appears the text: “LONG LIVE THE KING.”[...]Since starting his second presidential term about a month ago, Trump has issued more than 60 executive orders — including multiple directives that have been challenged in court and blocked by judges. On Tuesday, Trump announced that he has directed the Department of Justice to fire “ALL remaining ‘Biden Era’ U.S. Attorneys.”
The governor calls him out on it...
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul rejected Trump’s and the White House’s posts in a press conference Wednesday.“I’m here to say: New York hasn’t labored under a king in over 250 years and we are not — we sure as hell are not going to start now,” Hochul said. “The streets of this city, where battles were fought, we stood up to a king and we won then and we will. In case you don’t know New Yorkers, when we’re in a fight, we don’t back down, not now, not ever.”
The problem is I really think that Trump thinks that he is above the law... Musk, and all his hanger-ons I think feed him this crap and he lets them do what they want as long as they feed his ego. The New Republic wrote,
Alas, the right-wing shills that run Trump’s communications basked in the wash of his declaration of unchecked power.Taylor Budowich, the White House deputy chief of staff posted an AI-generated picture of Trump wearing a jeweled crown and fur-trimmed cape on X.
This is really scary!
What is Congress saying about this... well all most all of them have zippered their lips. In another TNR article they report,
It’s worth noting that Republicans weren’t always like this. Flashback to 2014, and Senator Rand Paul was tossing barbs at former President Barack Obama for being a “president who thinks he’s a king.”Republicans’ sycophantic support demonstrates that Trump’s autocratic (or monarchic) ranting isn’t merely him going rogue; it’s a distinct rhetorical feature of his entire administration, which has already set to work uprooting the checks and balances that underpin American democracy, and replacing it with something wholly different.On Tuesday night, Elon Musk claimed that “if the will of the president is not implemented, and the president is representative of the people, that means the will of the people is not being implemented. And that means we don’t live in a democracy, we live in a bureaucracy.”It’s not a bureaucracy Americans need fear, but a monarchy.
Funny how when a Republican does it everything is A-Okay but they vilify a Democrat for doing way less! The British media the Independent writes...
If the court allows Trump to follow through with his threats, he will be stripping more than $15 billion that the MTA had planned to spend on crucial upgrades throughout the city’s mass transit system, which moves more than 3.6 million people on subways and 1.4 million on busses each day.“It’s mystifying that after four years and 4,000 pages of federally-supervised environmental review — and barely three months after giving final approval to the [program] — [the Transportation Department] would seek to totally reverse course,” MTA chair and CEO Janno Lieber said in a statement.New York City comptroller Brad Lander said he was “appalled” by the president’s actions, which he called “another instance of federal overreach by the Trump administration.”
The courts must strike this royal edict!
Question: Do you think Trump will give them the fifteen billion dollars that he just stripped from NYC rebuilding the city's infrastructure?
The Yahoo version of the Independent's article has comments and I was expecting his MAGA supporters will be all in favor of of his dictate but they weren't, they were more like this...
Well...too many people ignored the "liberal" media when they said Trump will try and be a dictator. They got that one right. Of course you can say he's just joking around but this is truly what he wants. He is already taking leaps towards giving himself all the power and he isn't even hiding this.
That comment was replied with...
Well put! Every person in this country should contact there representatives Let them know how they feel. About the way our country is benning dismantled. I have and continue to do so.
And that was replied with...
Unfortunately, the Representatives care more about their job security than what their constituents want. The threat of primaries from Musk has the House and Senate cowering under their desks. It's only a matter of time before Trump tries to dismantle Congress.
I think that with more decrees like this you are going to see more and more moderates backing away from Trump but the Republicans in Congress still fear the wrath of the "Donald"!
Until the Republicans develop some backbone we are stuck with "King Donald!" or until the mid-term elections.
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