That buzz you hear is George Washington spinning in his grave

Declaring himself anointed by God, Trump said during his inaugural speech that God saved him from an assassination attempt to make America great again. Delusionally fusing God into himself and MAGA with outrageous post-inaugural deeds, Trump is making his monarchical intentions clear. George Washington is spinning in his grave.

Washington, widely considered America’s wisest president, intentionally refrained from presidential overreach. Although there was no legal bar to serving for life at the time, he set the precedent of a two-term limit because he believed limited terms were crucial to the stability of the country. He counseled against longer term presidencies, loathed subjecting free people to the whims of a king, and announced he would not serve a third term during his farewell address.

Rejecting this foundational wisdom, Trump is obviously building a monarchy, one that will keep him in the White House until he dies a natural death. His opening salvo in pardoning and commuting the sentences of men who were willing to kill for him on J6 was a recruitment event. Trump is rewarding—and thereby summoning—political violence in his name to prepare for J6 2028.

Trump considers himself king

By the end of last week, Trump had signed expansive executive orders on gender, immigration, hiring, and energy, left the Paris Agreement, withdrawn from the World Health Organization, declared that he would ‘tariff and tax’ neighbors and allies into submission, and jettisoned the 14th Amendment to ban birthright citizenship. A king does not require cumbersome state ratifications to amend the Constitution.

Trump has always viewed his presidential powers expansively, claiming in his first term that the Constitution gave him “the right to do whatever I want as president.” When his J6 coup attempt failed to keep him in office after he lost the 2020 election, Trump later suggested “termination” of the Constitution.

Trump has said repeatedly that America may have a ‘president for life’ some day, like China’s Xi.Referring to ‘manifest destiny,’ a theme popular among dictators and monarchs in the 1800s, Trump has also claimed the right to rename geographic designations and grab sovereign territories. His renaming the Gulf of Mexico as ‘Gulf of America’ doesn’t project American strength to the world; it projects petulance, immaturity, and more next level ignorance of world history.

Abject loyalists serve one purpose only

To enable and enforce his monarchical power grab, Trump has also chosen the least qualified and most inexperienced cabinet in U.S. history. It is hard to conceive of a more brutal or dictatorial approach to governance than selecting unqualified sycophants who will do his bidding no matter how illegal.

First buddy Elon Musk, who purchased proximity to power, posted un-ironically on X that Trump’s inauguration heralded “The Return of the King.” He then gave a Heil Hitler Salute to wild applause from Trump supporters. Kash Patel published the last of his children’s trilogy about investigations into Trump’s criminality, called “The Plot Against the King,” and snagged an FBI directorship as a reward.

Vice President JD Vance shares the same imperial views, encouraging Trump to defy judicial orders that strike down his unconstitutional policies, pointing out that courts have no enforcement powers of their own.

The J6 pardons were meant to recruit

Like many coup attempts throughout history, J6 was a rehearsal. After claiming he would only consider J6 pardons on a case by case basis, Trump pardoned and commuted the sentences of all J6 rioters, including those convicted of bludgeoning and beating police officers, to begin recruitment for the real event.

Even with an undisciplined drunkard in command of the world’s most lethal military, and a relentless itch to deploy the military against Democrat citizens on American soil, Trump will still need paramilitary goons to stay in power beyond 2028. Republicans’ latest effort to amend the Constitution so Trump can run again won’t go anywhere, so Trump will have to take matters into his own hands again. Rioters who bludgeoned, beat, bear-and-pepper sprayed, and tased police officers on J6 to keep Trump in power have already shown their willingness to kill for him; there is no more fertile ground for arming his next coup.

Integral to this effort, Trump also knows that to crown himself king, he must protect himself as a “winner” at all costs. That is why, instead of moving on from his 2020 loss, Trump is still denying it four years on, even after winning in 2024. He will use his ‘stolen election’ claim to summon an armed militia in 2028, if not sooner, inciting them to re-claim what Democrats “stole” from them in 2020.

Trump’s recruitment efforts are already working

The pardons sent an invitation to the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, white supremacists, and other violent extremists to recruit like-minded criminals to fight on Trump’s behalf. One member of the Proud Boys told Reuters that Trump’s J6 pardons would increase recruitment, because violent militia members now consider themselves “bulletproof.”

After the pardons were issued, a pro-Trump website began calling for the execution of judges, police officers or Democratic officials, saying they should be hanged, beaten to death or fed into wood chippers. The “QAnon Shaman” who wore horns on J6 wrote on X, “NOW I AM GONNA BUY SOME MOTHAFU*KIN GUNS!!! I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!! GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!”

To experts on extremism, Trump’s J6 pardons will embolden extremist groups who thrive on political violence. That was exactly Trump’s plan. Even as he was sworn in again, Trump continued to claim the 2020 election was rigged, and that J6 was a peaceful “day of love.”

Trump began whining about a stolen election in 2020 months before the first vote was cast, and he keeps lying about it in 2025 for a reason. He is keenly aware that 2028 is looming, and has begun to fortify his castle.

Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25 year litigator specializing in 1st and 14th Amendment defense. Her Substack, the Haake Take, is free.