State of War
The Rite of Kings
The State of the Union, in which Iran was barely mentioned, served nevertheless as this war’s perfect predictor.
He offered himself as this country’s king and not a constitutional one. He passed out a monarch’s gifts – Medals of Honor, Medals of Freedom, and other awards of the state as if they came from his honors list.
He did so with the same ease he had shown just months ago, issuing pardons to those who desecrated the very Capitol in which he now stood.
Trump spoke little, if at all, of the constitutional connection between the legislative branch and himself. Instead, he treated Republican senators and members of Congress as a studio audience, Democratic legislators simply as targets for personal abuse.
The only recognition of the Congress as a coequal constitutional body was Trump’s rebuke of the Supreme Court for its “unfortunate” decision, reminding us of Congress’s right to control US tax, tariff, and trade policy.
Everything he did Tuesday night ceremonially was a preview of what he did on Saturday. He took our country to war as if he were doing it as a king.