Summary

Donald Trump’s supporters celebrated his self-proclaimed “king” status after he ended New York City’s congestion pricing program.

Conservatives, including White House officials and influencers, shared AI-generated images of Trump as a monarch.

Critics, including New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, condemned his rhetoric, emphasizing that the U.S. is a democracy. Hochul announced legal action to challenge the decision.

The controversy highlights the growing embrace of authoritarian symbolism among his supporters.

  • SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Can anyone imagine what would be said of Biden, if he did something like this? Why does Trump get a pass from society to be the absolute garbage person he is?

    • Goodmorningsunshine@lemmy.world
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      24 hours ago

      Because Republicans are weak cunts that have always wanted fascism desperately. They just wanted their chosen king cunt to be the fascist.

    • Alwaysnownevernotme@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Because the point is to be right.

      They don’t give a fuck what happens.

      They don’t give a fuck if it’s true.

      They don’t give a fuck if they live or die.

      They don’t give a fuck if they succeed or fail.

      They don’t give a fuck if it ends human life on this planet.

      They picked the guy who stroked their abused, weak, cowardly egos.

      They picked the guy who said the simple stupid achievable plan.

      And they will never, ever, reckon with the idea that they made a mistake.

      They will have MAGA tombstones.

      • inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        On the MAGA tombstone note, it’s worth rembering that while these people don’t give a single fuck their empathy or truth, they DO give a fuck about cruelty and hate.

        So long as Trump encourages their bigotry nothing else, even their own well being, nothing else matters.

  • inv3r5ion@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    The utter irony of republicans supporting a king.

    Words mean nothing anymore. We’re a republic not a democracy!

    I’m so fucking tired.

    • GalacticGrapefruit@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Do you know where the entire idea of left-vs-right even came from?

      After the French Revolution, after the people stormed the Bastille and overthrew the monarchy, they were still working out the concept of a government without a king. The National Assembly was split pretty much down the middle; the people who sat with their friends and coconspirators found that muttering ideas to each other was easier when the other side of the room couldn’t hear them. Like any high school lunch room, people found their own assigned spots with their friends.

      The Monarchists ended up on the right side of the room, and the Republicans ended up on the left.

      My brother in Christ, the GOP was ALWAYS about dragging us back into the dark ages. It’s what Conservatives have wanted for as long as Conservativism has existed as a political orientation. France and the UK still have monarchist hangers-on in the far-right wings of their politics.

      • inv3r5ion@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        21 hours ago

        Sure, but they can be right wing while still being republican and not supporting the concept of a king.

        It’s wild to me, the irony.

  • WraithGear@lemmy.world
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    24 hours ago

    Elon Musk: " My appointment overseeing FEMA should be finalized within the week. I’ve already discussed the other matter with  Mayor Eric Adams."

    Camera cuts to Elon and Donald, alternating between them

    Donald Trump: " I take it he was agreeable?"

    Elon Musk: " He didn’t really have a choice."

    Donald Trump: " Has he been indicted?"

    Elon Musk: " Oh, yes, most certainly. When I mentioned that we could force the DOJ to withhold their case against him, he was so willing it was almost pathetic."

    Donald Trump: " These plagues – covid lingers in the background as we cut ties with world medical groups, and bird flu already further raises the cost of eggs, and without leadership or funds, the FDA is incapable of containing its spread to humans."

    Camera zooms in on Elons’ son picking his nose.

    Elon Musk: " Why contain it? (Its coool!) Let it spill over into the schools and churches, let the bodies pile up in the streets. In the end, they’ll beg us to save them."

    Cut to the LA fires and a FEMA agent surrounded by farmers and newly homeless.

    Donald Trump: " I’ve received reports of escalating natural disasters, and mass ICE deportations has irrevocably harmed the agricultural-business complex. There’s not enough food or funding to go around, and the underclasses are starting to get desperate."

    Camera pans through a super market. Food displays show surge pricing raise costs in real time.

    Elon Musk: " Of course they’re desperate. They can smell their poverty, and the sound they’ll make rattling their cage in Gitmo will serve as a warning to the rest."

    Cut to protests getting beat into submission by police.

    Donald Trump: " Mmm. I hope you’re not underestimating the problem. The others may not go as quietly as you think – intelligence indicates grass roots protests are growing across the country."

    Elon Musk: " A bunch of pretentious children pretending at changing the world. They protest where we want and how we want."
    Elon Musk: " But the world left them behind long ago. We are the future."

    Donald Trump: " We have other problems."

    Elon Musk: " Activist judges?"

    Cut to the terrace of the Supreme Court and the ceremony confirming Justice Kavanaugh. Attending are President Donald Trump with First Lady Melania. Agents in the back row, together with two generic NPCs.

    Donald Trump: " Hired before my last term as president, they claim to have authority over my executive actions. I have people in place, though. I’m more concerned about Bernie Sanders. He stands to rally the orphaned progressive vote against me"

    Cut to Guantanamo bay. The captured immigrants are forced to concentrate at this camp, exploited for labor.

    Elon Musk: " Our party unity is lock-step and will believe anything we tell them over their very eyes. And democrat…ethical inflexibility has allowed us to make progress in areas they refuse to consider."

    Donald Trump: " Project 2025?"

    Cut back to Washington.

    Elon Musk: " Among other things – but I must admit that I’ve been somewhat disappointed in the… efficiency of the government agencies."

    Donald Trump: " These agencies should be captured soon. We are currently undergoing a loyalty purge, and will be operational within six months. My people will continue to report on their progress. If necessary, these agencies will be terminated."

    Elon Musk: " We’ve had to endure much, you and I, but soon there will be order again, a new age. Aquinas spoke of the mythical City on the Hill. Soon that city will be a reality, and I will be crowned its king."
    Elon Musk: " Or better than king. Godking!"

  • zib@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    If Trump is a king, then I suggest we show him the same courtesy that France showed Louis XVI in 1792.

  • Yodan@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    May he be shown the same kindness and tolerance that he gives to others.

  • 0ops@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    Til that maga thinks America was greatest as a monarch’s colony. Go figure

    • Case@lemmynsfw.com
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      I don’t speak French, nor have I ever wanted to learn.

      The French got a lot of shit after WW2, but that was a long time ago.

      That being said, the French sure knew how to throw a revolution. More recent events over there involved less guillotines, but they still gathered as a people to make themselves heard.

      • doctordevice@lemmy.ca
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        1 day ago

        For those that don’t know what the French above said:

        Vive le roi = long live the king

        Vive la révolution = long live the revolution

  • spirinolas@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Can’t say I’m surprised. After becoming a Russian vassal, the US swearing fealty to a king is pretty much just going full circle.

    On second though…a king has no suzerain. Shouldn’t he be like a duke or something?

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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    So the only reason this works is because Trump’s got a buddy in Mayor Adams, because he just leaned on the DoJ to drop ALL of the charges that were preceding against Adams. Otherwise, the NYS Governor and NYC mayor would likely just laugh in Trump’s face and tell him to fuck off.

    • Lasherz12@lemmy.world
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      The reason most things Trump does “works” is because corruption with cowardice making up a close second.

    • GalacticGrapefruit@lemmy.world
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      Low-key, the fact that that skit is no longer funny and is nothing but straight facts is absolutely paralyzing.

      Monty Python’s Flying Circus was terrifyingly, utterly lucid. That was the straightest skit they ever wrote.

      It’s funny because it is, in fact, completely true.