Hail Donald Caesar! Or so some Trump backers want

President Donald Trump, yes.
But what about King Trump or even Donald Caesar?
The thoroughly un-American idea has been aired repeatedly in Washington since the Republican began his second term a month ago.
And it's not just radiating from the wild fringes of Trump's nationalist-populist Make America Great Again movement known as MAGA.
It's coming from the 78-year-old billionaire himself.
LONG LIVE THE KING! Trump crowed Wednesday on his Truth Social platform to celebrate his government's nixing of the New York City congestion pricing plan.
The White House then posted a fake magazine cover on its official X account, repeating the slogan and showing Trump wearing a golden crown.
Trump has a long history of suggesting he might serve more than the two terms allowed by the US Constitution.
What was often dismissed as joking during his first term looked darker after Trump refused to concede his 2020 loss to Joe Biden, then stoked his millions of followers to believe the election was rigged -- culminating with the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol.
As Trump launches his second presidency with an unprecedented demonstration of executive power -- using the world's richest man Elon Musk to dismantle swaths of the government -- giddy supporters want even more.
Much more.
- Donald Caesar? Napoleon? -
We love the idea of Trump as our Julius Caesar-type figure, Shane Trejo, from a group called Republicans for National Renewal, told reporters at the conservative CPAC conference in Washington.
Trejo stood alongside a poster showing the elderly Trump as a rather more youthful Roman emperor with a chiseled face, laurel wreath and a toga.
Mixing his imperial metaphors, Trejo also described Trump as a Napoleonic figure capable of leading our country out of perdition and into greatness.
Republicans for National Renewal is lobbying Congress to approve a constitutional amendment to the two-terms limit.
According to the House Republican who introduced the resolution, Andy Ogles of Tennessee, Trump is the only figure in modern history capable of reversing our nation's decay and restoring America to greatness and therefore should be given more time in power.
Amending the constitution would require a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate. That's all but impossible to achieve.
But Republicans for National Renewal's website proposes emulating a trick used by Russia's Vladimir Putin and working around the term limits by getting a placeholder elected instead.
In the US version, Trump's son Don Jr. could run on a Trump/Trump ticket before gracefully resigning on Jan. 21, 2028 after securing victory, the website says.
This plan while unorthodox would show that MAGA cannot be stopped by any procedural rule.
Another supporter calling to extend the Trump era is former advisor and highly influential right-wing strategist Steve Bannon.
We want Trump in '28, Bannon said at CPAC. A man like Trump comes along only once or twice in a country's history.
Bannon, who emulated a viral Musk moment from January in making what looked like a Nazi salute from the stage, led the crowd in chants of, We want Trump!
Trump has done nothing to tamp down the talk, even if it goes against the grain of the founding US principles.
Just this Thursday, Trump asked guests at a White House event: Should I run again?
The response was shouts of Four more years!
No chance, say the constitutionalists.
But Trump clearly is thrilled by the controversy -- and sure that the crown fits.
He who saves his Country does not violate any Law, Trump wrote on Truth Social last week.
The origin of the phrase, according to some historians? Napoleon Bonaparte -- the French general who crowned himself emperor in 1804.

(2025/02/28 19:58)