It Is Not U.S. Custom to Have a King

We must ask non-customary questions

It was over a year ago — December 5, 2023 — when Fox host Sean Hannity asked Donald Trump about his presidential campaign: “Under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight, you would never abuse power as retribution against anybody?” And Trump responded in front of a live audience: “Except for day one.”

Trump went on to paraphrase what he wished Hannity had said: “He [Hannity] says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I [Trump] said: ‘No, no, no, other than day one…After that, I’m not a dictator.’”

There is no such thing as being a dictator for only one day. Absolute power is a lifetime commitment.

Nonetheless, eleven months later, voters chose Trump. He’s living his “day one” every day, and he’s being the dictator he promised to be.

When people ask him why he gave Elon Musk access to everyone’s private data, his general response is that people voted for him so he’s entitled to do whatever he likes. That’s less of an argument, more of an attitude: Whatever I do to anyone is what tens of millions of people voted for.

Over the weekend, Trump posted: “He who saves his Country violates no Law.” It’s a line generally attributed to Napoleon. More recently, it was quoted in the manifesto of a white Christian supremacist mass murderer.

Yesterday, Trump signed an executive order giving himself “supervision and control of the…