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Trump seems to think he's an emperor – but we are not entertained | Lloyd Green
Lloyd Green
5-6 minutes

Hail the imperial cult: ancient Rome is reborn on the Potomac.

This week, Donald Trump ascribed to himself the roles of deity and the Chosen One, a first for an American president but definitely not for an emperor. Then, on Friday, he “ordered” US companies “to immediately start looking for an alternative to China”.

The president cited no authority for his directive, but then again it looks like Trump thinks the law and he are one and the same and that Article II of the constitution is a limitless font of power, Congress and the courts be damned. To quote him: “Then I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.”

None of this should come as a surprise. From the moment Trump became president, he sought to graft upon the office a patina and degree of authority antithetical to America’s foundational documents. When those were being written, Alexander Hamilton lost the battle over whether the president would serve for a lifetime.

But who can forget the spectacle over crowd size less than 36 hours after Trump had placed his right hand on the Bible? Poor Sean Spicer, we hardly knew you.

Then, this 4 July, Trump figuratively parachuted into the middle of America’s birthday party, putting himself front and center at the Lincoln Memorial in a scene reminiscent of Gladiator, Ridley Scott’s Academy Award-winning tale of Commodus, a debauched and self-venerating emperor.