It was just six weeks ago that Democrats celebrated No Kings Day. At the time it seemed like a puerile demonstration of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Of course, there should be no kings in America, but no one in the MAGA movement was seriously arguing in favor of a despotic monarchy in the first place. Nor was blind loyalty to President Trump considered a requirement for those who want to Make America Great Again.
But since then, a number of things have happened which have put at risk the coalition which Trump built in 2015 and then pieced back together in 2024. And some of those things suggest that Trump didn’t get the message about no kings.
Everyone can make their own list, but here are a few of the most questionable moments in the Trump administration recently that suggest a royal lack of accountability:
- When meeting with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, who has been credibly accused of ordering the death of a Washington Post columnist, Trump said of the allegation, “Things happen.” That might be something Richard III would say after killing his nephews.
- Asked a question he didn’t like by a reporter, Trump threatened to remove ABC’s broadcast license. This followed another incident in which he called a woman reporter “piggy.” Retaliation against the media asking hard questions may not be strictly a royal trait, but every despot does it. This goes beyond Richard Nixon and his notorious “enemies list.”
- In responding to a video put out by six members of Congress advising members of the military that it is their duty to disobey illegal orders, Trump suggested the six should be charged with sedition – and reposted on social media calls that they be put to death. Whether you think the video was appropriate or not, we should all agree that executing your political enemies, which was the fate that befell Jamal Khashoggi, is not a democratic norm.
We all know that Trump lives in the margins of civility, and that has been part of his political charm – telling the elites where to go. But at some point even MAGA supporters like myself have to ask whether there are limits.
If we all agree there should be no kings in America, we should also agree that there should be no blind loyalty to our leaders. They do need to be held to account whether in politics, media, or business.
Which brings me to Marjorie Taylor Greene, who broke with Trump on the matter of releasing the so-called Epstein files and other matters, and was subsequently exiled by Trump to the nether regions of Truth Social.
Inexplicably, Trump had been adamantly opposed to releasing Justice Department files about his former friend Jeffrey Epstein – a convicted sex offender – even though he promised during the 2024 campaign to turn them over if he were elected.
I wrote a column in September saying that Trump calling the Epstein files a hoax was “a low point in his presidency.” My goal then, along with that of other MAGA supporters such as Rep. Greene, was to dissuade Trump from pursuing a self-destructive path that would injure not just himself but the Republican Party and the MAGA movement he founded.
But Trump was having none of it. When Greene asked him to meet with the victims of Epstein at the Oval Office, he did not accept the offer, again blaming a “hoax.” She responded, “Jeffrey Epstein is a convicted pedophile. That takes away the whole hoax thing. It’s not a hoax. It’s not a lie.”
I agreed, and I was hoping Greene and other women prominent in the MAGA movement such as Rep. Lauren Boebert and Laura Loomer – and maybe even Melania Trump – would succeed in convincing Trump to separate his personal concerns about political embarrassment (there’s no evidence of criminal wrongdoing on Trump’s part) from the necessity of providing an open window on the issue of whether or not the Justice Department had worked to protect Epstein’s rich and powerful friends.
That didn’t happen. Although the president eventually went along with the inevitable vote in Congress to release the materials, he singled out Greene for retribution, calling her a “ranting lunatic” in a Truth Social post on Nov. 14. What Trump doesn’t seem to understand is that if Greene is a lunatic, what does that say about his policies? What she has been ranting about most during the past decade is her total support for almost all of the president’s programs.
Something doesn’t add up.
So when Greene appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” two days later, it was a signal that sides were being chosen, and everyone in MAGA needed to make a decision – transparency or blind loyalty. Trump made it clear: He wanted blind loyalty, and as a result he went scorched earth on the Georgia congresswoman.
Mind you, MTG is not without blemish herself. She has advocated positions that are beyond the pale. In late 2021, she promoted a “national divorce” between red states and blue states, which kind of goes against the whole idea of the United States of America. And like Trump, she has all but advocated the execution of various political opponents, including Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton. She has promoted the conspiracy theory that leading Democrats belong to a Satanic pedophilia cult. Most absurd of all, she suggested that wildfires in California were lit by lasers from outer space.
So let’s make it clear. No one should give MTG blind loyalty either. If there are no kings, there are no queens. All leaders should be subject to the utmost scrutiny, and each of us as citizens must learn to reject bad ideas without throwing out the good.
Hopefully, that is the standard the MAGA movement will hold itself to. When she appeared on CNN, Greene was absolutely right to caution that unanimity should not be the hallmark of Trump’s coalition.
“I have disagreed with [the president] at times,” she said. “I’m allowed to do that. I think that’s the most important thing we can do as Americans. And I’m urging my party, I have been putting massive pressure on my party and our speaker to pass the agenda that the American people vote for.”
That about sums up where I am too. Although I voted for Donald Trump twice, mainly because of his promises to end illegal immigration and to deport those here illegally, I do not agree with everything he says or does. That includes his reluctance to unseal the Epstein files. More importantly, there are substantive issues that raise concerns, such as his insistence that H-1B visas for foreign workers are necessary because Americans lack “certain talents.”
But based on the way Trump has treated Greene in the wake of her public disagreement with him, I should expect to be drummed out of the MAGA coalition any day now.
In a Truth Social post, the president called Greene “Wacky Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Brown (Remember, Green turns to Brown where there is ROT involved!)” and he specified that she was not just a traitor to him personally or to the MAGA movement, but a “Traitor to our Country.”
That can only be compared to the dictum attributed to King Louis XIV of France, “L’etat c’est moi,” or “The state, it is me” – a sentiment Trump has actually quoted on social media himself. That grandiose belief is self-evident in Trump’s assessment of Greene as a national traitor when she has in fact only challenged the president on a few specific policies.
It is possible that Trump will continue to enjoy policy successes by strong-arming his opponents and his allies alike, but I am concerned that his transparent disregard for minority rights or often for common decency will result in long-term damage to the Republican brand.
And if Democrats win back Congress in 2026 and claim the presidency in 2028, then all the good Trump did in the last decade will be undone in short order.
