It's like an episode of Game of Thrones, one of the more complicated ones. An apparent saviour of the Normal People – the working type, not Sally Rooney's – sees his power dim in the face of a national reckoning. While his supporters are fervent and steadfast, it seems a thin majority aren't so keen anymore. Not everyone wants a king.
We certainly didn't; not one that with absolute power anyway. While Queen Elizabeth and her kids (well, most of them) go around and shake hands and open hospital wings, they're essentially there to look nice, and make our island look nice. America, the land of the free, is not the same. They fought hard to release themselves from the shackles of British imperialism. And do you know what: good for them!
But in the last four years, Donald Trump's strongman brand is more reminiscent of an absolute monarchy than a free democracy. He sits, quite literally, in an ivory tower, surrounded by sycophants and nodding dogs. He melts when subjects profess to his handsomeness in televised NBC Q&As. He seemingly believes himself to be of deep, superior intellect because he can recall the words 'person, woman, man, camera, TV' perfectly, in order. Us mud-chewing serfs could never. Really, it's quite amazing.
Those who refuse to bend the knee are not treated kindly. Nor are those that take it in peaceful acts of protest against racial injustice. Rather, they are pilloried from a bully pulpit, and the king's supporters are encouraged to join in the pile on. In Arizona, Republican voters attempted to storm election polls, emboldened by Trump-driven misinformation. The calls to civil unrest have long been a feature. During 2016, he delivered subtle jibes to a rally, ones about invoking the second amendment – the right to bear arms – should Hillary Clinton have ever taken the presidency. That's straight from the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, not the fifty states of America.
The age of kings has a sell-by date. Granted, democracy isn't a picture of health either. Though as results trickled through to the UK from across the pond late Tuesday afternoon, things weren't looking great for the supposed defender of the realm. Florida swore its fealty, as did Texas and Ohio. But in the American Midwest – the states in which Trump scored an upset in 2016 – the people were not going his way en masse. Wisconsin went for Joe Biden by a razor-thin margin; more convincing was his win in Michigan. Pennsylvania was reported to be looking shaky.
So what does a king do when his deposing is imminent? He sends out the cavalry and the kingsguard. Like Charles I as he fought against his challengers in the English Civil War, royalists were whipped up into a frenzy. There must be a conspiracy. There's no way the king could lose. So, like in Arizona, they headed to Michigan too, repeating the official palace line verbatim: stop the vote! Unless he's behind, in which you count the vote! Advisors, blind in their faith and with leather boots on their tongue, led the charge, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani swearing to battle (and overturn) a potential Biden victory by any means possible.
And the mad king, he lashes out. Trump took to Twitter to question a 'deep state' that is so crooked, so liberal, so rotten that they afforded him a win four years ago. According to a Vanity Fair source, the president, incandescent, called Fox's Rupert Murdoch: how dare his most loyal mouthpiece tell the world he'd lost the loyalist people of Arizona! How dare they turn their backs on him! But turn they did.
The problem is that, throughout history – especially our own – kings inevitably lose. The same may happen to Trump. Many believe the votes to be in Biden's favour. Know, however, that the sitting president will not go down without a fight – and we've learnt that the Trumps aren't afraid to fight dirty. But without his court, and Fox News, and the all-important majorities in swing states, he is no longer a king. He's simply a Karen. As the good meme doth attest: somebody wants to speak to the poll manager. Let's just hope the customer isn't always right.
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