The Fool’s Crown: A Regime Too Stupid to Know It’s Doomed

The great irony of authoritarians is that they believe they are securing power while laying the groundwork for their own destruction. The administration’s latest move—plastering the image of Trump crowned as king across official channels—demonstrates not just its contempt for democracy, but its complete ignorance of history.

They aren’t even subtle. The administration isn’t using dog whistles or quiet subversions. They are screaming their delusions of monarchy from the rooftops, convinced that if they say it loudly enough, people will believe it’s true. But power does not come from slogans, nor does legitimacy come from self-congratulation. What we are witnessing is a regime so enthralled with its own myth that it mistakes its fantasies for reality—the same mistake that has doomed despots for over a century.

Two images expose the full depth of this madness. The first, an official White House post, presents Trump in oil-paint grandeur, smug beneath a golden crown, the words “LONG LIVE THE KING” emblazoned beside him. 

The second, an official social media post, parrots the same absurd phrase—as if repealing a minor tolling initiative justifies a declaration of divine right. 

These are not the actions of a government concerned with governance. These are the tantrums of men who believe they should rule because they want to, as if that has ever been enough.

THE DEAD-END ROAD OF DICTATORS

History does not reward regimes that try to replace democracy with self-worship. Across the 20th and 21st centuries, authoritarians have built their castles on sand, only to watch them collapse into dust at the first tide of resistance.

• The Romanovs ruled for centuries, yet Nicholas II found himself and his family lined up against a wall in 1918.
• Hitler promised a “Thousand-Year Reich”—he got twelve before dying in a bunker.
• Mussolini styled himself as the heir to Rome, but his rule ended with his corpse hanging upside down in the streets.
• Ceaușescu in Romania believed he was untouchable—until his own people sentenced him to death on Christmas Day.

Power secured by fear, fraud, or fantasy never lasts. When a government betrays the will of the people, its survival becomes a countdown to collapse.

WHEN HUBRIS BECOMES HUMILIATION

No despot ever believes he will be the one to fall. They all convince themselves that this time is different, that they are stronger, smarter, or more divinely favored than those before them. This administration has fallen into the same delusion, mistaking compliance for consent, silence for support.

This isn’t just an attack on democracy—it’s a fundamental miscalculation of reality. No regime in history has ever cemented power through self-parody and delusion, yet this administration clings to the belief that if they call Trump a king, he will become one. They misread history, misunderstand power, and overestimate their own security.

But here’s what history actually tells us:

• The longest authoritarian regimes barely survived a few decades—and only through brutality.
• Those who declared themselves kings without a crown were the first to be overthrown.
• The most desperate regimes turn to spectacle when they can no longer govern—and this administration is in full performance mode.

A WARNING TO THOSE WHO IGNORE THE PEOPLE

Governments can break the law. They can rewrite rules. They can dismantle institutions. But they cannot change the reality of an enraged, disrespected, and ignored electorate.

Kings fall. Dictators are deposed. Power is temporary. And the more forcefully a ruler insists on his own invincibility, the closer he is to his downfall.

Trump and his handlers can declare victory all they like. They can crown him in paintings, scream his praises in capital letters, and flood the airwaves with their propaganda. But none of it will change this simple, inescapable truth:

This ends the same way it always does. Badly.

"I am losing a head""I am gaining one"

It's what happens to kings.