Those Americans who voted for a king, rather than a president, should be celebrating today. Their would-be king has just returned from the Middle East, where he took credit for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Many people may have forgotten there was a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas in effect on January 20, when Trump took office. The October 2025 agreement has the same basic framework as the January 2025 ceasefire negotiated by Biden. But in his speech to world leaders, Trump claimed full credit for bringing peace to the Middle East.
Trump boasted that the Gaza peace agreement could be his “greatest deal” yet — claiming it could end 3,000 years of conflict in the region. He said, “All I’ve done all my life is deals. The greatest deals just sort of happen.” “And that’s what happened right here. And maybe this is going to be the greatest deal of them all.”
He didn’t mention the ceasefire in January 2025 that released 33 Israeli hostages and 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Trump’s Oval Office remarks, after he became president, about encouraging Israel to level Gaza, moving the surviving Palestinians elsewhere, and turning Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” gave Israel little incentive to continue implementing the Biden agreement.
Granted, Trump put pressure on Netanyahu to stop the cruel and senseless killing in Gaza, which Biden could not, would not, or at least did not do. But the growing outrage and condemnation of Israel by the international community eventually pressured Trump to act where Biden did not. Regardless, Trump claimed full credit for bringing peace to the Middle East. That’s what kings do.
It should be clear by now that Trump has no intention of respecting the constitutional limits of the presidency, but instead intends to rule as an autocrat, dictator, or king. Trump decides who will be allowed to enter or continue living in the U.S. and who will be rounded up and shipped to another country, regardless of their legal rights or status. Trump decides which boats in international waters might be supplying the U.S. drug market, and orders them blown to smithereens, even if they might have been innocent fishermen.
Trump decided which individuals born in the U.S. should be citizens and which should not. Trump decides when to send the National Guard and regular military troops to take over cities that he concludes are being ravaged by crime, regardless of clear evidence to the contrary. Trump decides when to impose tariffs on which nations, and changes tariffs as often as he changes his mind, despite the Constitution giving Congress responsibility for foreign trade. Trump decides which government departments, agencies, and programs, authorized and funded by Congress, he will allow to function and which he will defund or eliminate.
Trump orders the Department of Justice to indict his critics for some imagined crime, and they are indicted, regardless of the absence of evidence. Trump withholds federal funds from universities, and they reshape their educational programs to accommodate his political preferences. Trump threatens to punish the owners of newspapers, TV networks, and social media, and the “free press” does whatever Trump demands. Trump decides which parts of American history are worthy of being preserved and which will be eliminated or rewritten.
Trump’s net worth has increased by more than $3 billion since he was elected president, and his family’s by billions more, but no one has seriously challenged his conflicts of interest. Trump accepted a $490 million private jet from a foreign country, which supposedly will go to his library after he leaves office. The taxpayers will pay another $400 million to retrofit it as Air Force One, which will probably take a year, even though the Constitution prohibits Trump from serving a third four-year term.
Trump has no intention of accepting the constitutional limits on presidential terms, just as he has ignored any other constitutional restraints. Trump has every intention of ruling as an autocrat, dictator, or king and beginning the Trump Dynasty.
Trump’s MAGA supporters love him because, like other autocrats or dictators, he gets things done. He doesn’t feel obligated to consult with Congress, comply with court orders, or respect constitutional limits on the presidency. However, he has not solved any of the problems he claims as his amazing, historic successes.
Trump hasn’t brought peace to the Middle East, but has supported an attempted genocide that will fuel Middle East wars for hundreds of years to come. He hasn’t solved the immigration problem, unless you consider making the U.S. a place no one would want to immigrate to a solution. Trump hasn’t solved the crime problem, but has increased economic and societal inequity, and other root causes of crime. Trump hasn’t solved the drug problem in the U.S., but has created a reality of despair and hopelessness from which even more people will turn to drugs to escape. Kings get things done, but they don’t solve problems. All of the things they do ultimately serve their own self-interests, not the interests of the people they rule.
Quoting Bernie Sanders, one of the few legislators with the courage to openly oppose him: “Trump may be crazy and a pathological liar, but he is not stupid. He is a very good tactician and knows exactly what he’s doing. His goal, by “flooding the zone” and moving forward simultaneously in a hundred different areas is to convince the American people that he is invincible and can’t be stopped. He has the power. You don’t. He has unlimited amounts of money. You don’t. His friends control the media. You don’t. Give up. There’s nothing you can do to stop him and his fellow oligarchs.”
Sanders continues,” It’s actually a pretty good plan. Fortunately, however, it’s not working. More and more Americans are seeing through Trump and are turning away from him. While he still has a strong core of right-wing support, polling shows that he is less popular today than at any time in his second administration.”
Another NO KINGS demonstration is planned for October 18. I plan to join the Southern Illinois NO KINGS demonstration at Turley Park in Carbondale, Illinois, beginning at 1:00 p.m.
It is not a “hate-America” event, as Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, has accused. It’s not un-American to demand that the President of the United States respect the separation of powers and fulfill his oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." If you love America, are committed to defending our democracy, and refuse to allow our nation to be ruled by a king, I hope you will join a NO KINGS demonstration somewhere on October 18.
John Ikerd