Donald Trump called himself ‘the king' and now he’s facing backlash

US president Donald Trump may be a Republican in terms of its meaning in modern day American politics, but when it comes to the word ‘republican’ in relation to doing away with the monarchy, the businessman and convicted felon has declared that he is the monarchy – yes, really.

Despite the comments branding Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” who “refuses to have elections”, Trump has taken to social media to proclaim that he is “the king”, an unelected head of state (even though he was, of course, democratically elected back in November last year).

In a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump wrote: “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!”

That relates to his administration’s plans to scrap new tolls for Manhattan drivers to raise funds for the city’s mass transit system – something his transportation secretary Sean Duffy branded “backwards”, “unfair” and “a slap in the face to working class Americans and small business owners” in a letter to New York governor Kathy Hochul on Wednesday.

Duffy also claimed federal officials would discuss plans with the state for the “orderly cessation of toll operations”.

Hochul clapped back by saying: “Public transport is the lifeblood of New York City and critical to our economic future – as a New Yorker, like President Trump, knows very well.

“We are a nation of laws, not ruled by a king. We’ll see you in court.”

As well as this, she noted vehicle congestion in New York has “dropped dramatically and commuters are getting to work faster than ever” following the rollout of the programme last month.

And in addition to the aforementioned post shared to Truth Social, the White House posted an edited version of a Time magazine cover to its social media platforms on Wednesday showing Trump wearing a golden crown and a caption which reads “long live the king”.

We wish we were joking.

It comes after Trump fumed at Time magazine when they published a front cover of Elon Musk sitting behind the Resolute Desk as president.

The move has sparked calls for Trump to be impeached, just short of a month since the former Apprentice star was inaugurated:

Others have branded the administration “the most un-American White House” in history:

And yet again, people are asking the question about how any of this goes towards lowering the price of groceries:

In fact, Trump was asked about that during a Fox News interview earlier this month, and his answer was completely incoherent.

“I think we’re gonna become a rich… Now look, we aren’t that rich right now, we owe $36 trillion, that’s because we let all these nations take advantage of us.

“Same thing like 200 billion with Canada, we have a 300… We have a deficit with Mexico, $350 billion, I was like, ‘I’m not going to do that, I’m not going to let that happen,” he said.

No, we have no clue either…

Meanwhile, the international community has been sent into chaos this week, as US president Trump turns his attention to ending the war in Ukraine and securing a deal with Russian president Vladimir Putin – while at the same time branding democratically Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” and falsely claiming it was that country which started the war three years ago.

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