It’s the reign of King Donald: now a people who fled cruel monarchs have their own | Martin Kettle

DDonald Trump’s triumphant return to the White House was an American political theatrical boost. This, of course, was the intention of the returning president. “Shock and awe” was the catchphrase in the Trump camp to describe it, as the president sought to obscure the Biden era in a storm of presidential executive orders and Day One MAGA payoffs.

Trump Second opening It worked very well. Where or whether all this is done in the form of a delivered policy is a different matter. It may be trivial for some to note that the United States’ last “shock and awe” exercise—the invasion of Iraq in 2003—also generated a feast of indelible images of American power. But this certainly did not end well.

Trump’s return may have appeared within the familiar framework of inauguration ceremonies. It is true that the severe weather led the event indoors, and to the same Capitol building that Trump encouraged the mob to march on in 2021. But the formalities were observed in the way the Constitution requires, and many considered Trump to be calmer this time than he had been previously. His 2017 speech – George W. Bush’s speech It’s called “some weird shit.”.

But behind these familiar rituals, it was hard not to sense that an important shift was underway in the way the United States was governed. Trump is not, by any instinct or evidence, a traditional or continuity president. He is a narcissist, a bully, a deal-seeker, and desires no commitment to others.

You can feel it all again during Monday’s events. Professors and textbooks have always told us that the United States is a country in which government is maintained by a clear separation of powers between the president, Congress, and the courts. In many ways, it still is. However, this week has provided us with several glimpses of how that ideal is now being challenged by a less benign reality, which will accelerate under Trump.

The United States is an increasingly court-governed country. But this ruling court is not a court of law. Trump’s grip on the top justices of the US Supreme Court, many of whom he appointed during his first term, is already tight and is likely to get even tighter now. Instead, Trump rules by placing himself at the center of a presidential court roughly modeled on a monarchy.

And not all of this is due to Trump alone. Over the past century, presidents such as Franklin Roosevelt have expanded the influence of the presidency in economic and international affairs. After the Vietnam War, historian Arthur Schlesinger called this “World War I.” The rise of the “imperial presidency”. But she didn’t stop. In his country David Frost interviewRichard Nixon argued that if the president approves something, it is not illegal. The Supreme Court gave this previously unthinkable view the majority’s blessing last year, ruling that the president enjoys absolute immunity from any official actions. Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor said this made the president “A king above the law“.

And with the king, inevitably comes the court. And with a king above the law comes a court for which the law must ultimately be a secondary concern as well. The royal court has no authority or self-interest to defend a different constitutional system that the king himself rejected.

Unsurprisingly, modern democracies have become unaccustomed to the dynamics of court rule. However, in British history, royal courts were the place where power lay, where decisions were made, where rivalries were fought, and where lives were sacrificed, at least in the Tudor era. Even as parliaments became more established in the 18th century, the court or king’s party would fight for supremacy with the House of Commons or Lords.

It is precisely for this reason that George Washington himself may have recognized that the court system that now flourishes around Trump is something approaching the form of monarchy against which he was forced to revolt nearly 250 years ago. writing In his 1967 On the Origins of the American Revolution, American historian Bernard Bailyn said that the rebellion was driven by fear of upsetting the constitutional balance by those around George III, encouraged by the king himself. Much of what Palin argued was evident in American politics this week, especially in the deeply feudal use of quasi-royal pardon powers by both Trump and Joe Biden.

Royal courts can be very formal forms of government, as was the case with Louis XIV of France. Duc de Saint-Simon He wrote in his diary That court proceedings were so specific that you knew exactly where Lewis would be, and in whose company, at every hour of the day. But the court could also serve as a market, where royals, ministers, advisors, favourites, sycophants, agents, middlemen, and peddlers competed for the king’s attention and favor.

This was the type of court that was displayed at the opening ceremony. Some courtiers were actually there, as were the leaders of both houses of Congress. Some of them were there by kinship – the younger Trump was the equivalent of the princes of royal blood at Versailles. Others, like previous Democratic presidents, were present because it was their painful duty to be humiliated.

However, there were many of them because they bought their way and want favors from Trump, who is shamelessly marketing his political power. This is clearly evident in technology leaders seeking to reduce taxes and gain market share to advance their global interests.

The presence of British politicians loyal to and admirers of Trump, such as Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson (who was once also a would-be king) and Liz Truss, was another reminder of the courts. Intruders from other countries will conspire in foreign courts as well.

The United States remains a constitutional democracy. Most of its institutions are operational. Professor David Runciman’s bet Before Trump’s first term The idea of ​​a US presidential election on Tuesday, November 8, 2072 is still intact, if a little shakier than when he first announced it. No one can say with certainty that J.D. Vance will be inaugurated as president four years from now, although that seems very likely.

But if Trump is serious about repealing part of the US Constitution – birthright citizenship – what other sections might he try to bypass? Such talk has richer soil in which a presidential court system can take root than one in which separation of powers and reverence for the constitution are maintained. That’s why Trump will govern this way as long as he can. On Monday, he announced to his court that America’s golden age begins now. If he had been in the Capitol, the Sun King would have understood what he was witnessing.