The White House finally said the quiet part out loud.
The official X account for the White House posted a photo of President Donald Trump and King Charles III on Tuesday with the caption: “TWO KINGS. 👑"
Trump, 79, has frequently and vehemently denied any comparisons to being a monarch as nationwide “No Kings” protests against his second administration seem to have gotten under his skin.
“I’m not a king; if I was a king, I wouldn’t be dealing with you,” the president told 60 Minutes correspondent Norah O’Donnell on Sunday in an exclusive interview following Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which he blamed on the “No Kings” protests.
Reports claimed that the suspect in the shooting, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, had previously attended a California “No Kings” rally.
“They’re referring to me as a king. I’m not a king,” Trump also told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures in October.
“I don’t feel like a king; I have to go through hell to get stuff approved,” he said about the anti-Trump demonstrations last June. “A king would say, ‘I’m not going to get this.’ A king would have never had the California mandate to even be talking. He wouldn’t have to call up Mike Johnson and Thune and say, ‘Fellas you got to pull this off’ and after years we get it done.”
“No, no we’re not a king,” Trump added. “We’re not a king at all.”
The White House did not respond to a request to clarify its social media post.
Throughout his second presidency, Trump has struggled to distance himself from comparisons likening him to a monarchical tyrant.
In October, the president posted an AI-generated video to Truth Social depicting himself wearing a crown and flying a fighter jet with “KING TRUMP” painted on the side. In the video, the president drops what appears to be feces on a crowd of American citizens at a “No Kings” protest.
“The president uses social media to make a point,” top Trump sycophant and House Speaker Mike Johnson said about the president’s post. “You can argue he’s probably the most effective person who’s ever used social media for that.”
The way Trump has attempted to wield the unprecedented power of the leader of the free world without the guardrails that are supposed to check and balance government power has made the comparisons to previous tyrannical monarchs throughout history all the more apt.
Last April, on what he called “Liberation Day,” the president unilaterally imposed global tariffs on nearly all countries without congressional approval. In February, the Supreme Court ruled that the tariffs exceeded the president’s authority under IEEPA.
In October, Trump brought a wrecking ball to the White House’s East Wing to prep for a $400 million ballroom that has yet to be approved by Congress. Not to mention his full pardoning of all January 6 rioters who stormed the Capitol in his name in 2021.
And aside from wanting to imprint his signature on U.S. dollars and his face on gold coins, Fox News reported on Tuesday that the State Department is set to reveal a limited-edition passport design featuring Trump’s face and signature.
