Who is the True President?

A lot of things have already been said and written about the current Trump administration. Democrats immediately called it an absolute travesty that is leading the entire country into a constitutional crisis as the Trump appears to defy court orders. However, lawsuits against Trump’s administration have also been overturned by federal judges, including by Tanya Chutkan, who ruled that a team headed by Elon Musk could audit the Internal Revenue Service, potentially gaining access to millions of taxpayers’ sensitive information.

This has caused an uproar within the left-leaning community, and sowed doubts and comparisons of Musk to Rasputin. Some have called Elon Musk the true president, including Musk’s own son, who, during a press conference, said to President Trump that he wasn’t the president.

In fact, this is such a disturbing premise — who is the true president of the United States? — that Time magazine published an article with a red background and the only thing on the cover was Elon Musk sitting at the Resolute Desk, where the president traditionally sits.

And to be sure, this was not an unjustified implication. Musk has wielded an enormous amount of influence within the Trump administration, heading up a team that leads mass firings, including that of nuclear security workers, and has repeatedly seen what he wants happen. There was lots of speculation before the election that Trump was merely using Musk for his deep pockets, but it seems that this is not the case. Trump has been drawn into Musk’s orbit, or that’s the way a lot of the world seems to see it.

Seemingly  in repudiation of this magazine cover, the White House decided to completely overcorrect in order to show a consolidation of the power struggle between Musk and Trump. They decided to post an alternate “magazine cover,” although it was more similar to a poster, with President Trump wearing a crown and stating “Long Live the King.”

Trump has violated many, many social norms and customs for a sitting president when in power, in both his previous and current administration. He has appealed to the nationalism that traditionally comes with the type of populism that he is peddling, with his “America First” rhetoric.

This type of campaign, however, flies in the face of the entire premise of the government of the United States — no man is a king. That was the reason George Washington stepped down after two terms and set a precedent for future presidents.

In his attempt to wrest his power in the court of public opinion away from Elon Musk, Trump has solidified fears from many of our supposed allies and from the Democratic party. Many people had said that Trump would be a dictator as he refused to condemn autocracy on the campaign trail, and at one point endorsed it. 

We can see that this was no bark this time. He has the power, he has the resources, and he has the will to carry his plan for the United States out. 

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