from Hacker News

Trump: "Long Live the King"

by babelfish on 2/19/25, 9:00 PM with 48 comments

  • by kccoder on 2/19/25, 10:50 PM

        “A republic, if you can keep it.”
    --Benjamin Franklin's response to Elizabeth Willing Powel's question: "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"

    https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/constitutionalconvention-se...

  • by beardyw on 2/19/25, 9:34 PM

    I am British, we have a real king. He cannot do any of this kind of stuff. I am so glad we have him, though it is only recently I have come to understand his value, which is to increase the accountability of those who do make decisions. Long may he reign (first time I ever said that!)

  • by TheAlchemist on 2/19/25, 9:03 PM

    This is tweeted from the official White House account.

    To Americans, please WAKE up.

    To all people reading this site and working for Musk companies - can you please explain how do you feel about it ? Don't mix work and politics argument ?

    Edit: By 'it' I mean an unprecedented power grab by Trump / Musk. They are trying to cut every agency and institution that could limit them, in a blantantly illegal way, and using tech-enabled propaganda machine to achieve their goals. This is very much a tech topic we should massively be discussing on HN, but for some reason it's being silenced. We used to say 'software is eating the world'. Software is currently turning USA into a dictatorship.

  • by bediger4000 on 2/19/25, 9:28 PM

    This strikes me as impeachable behavior.

    Where are the folks who preached checks and balances 2009-2016, and decried rule by executive order now? Where are the state's rights people right now?

  • by Atreiden on 2/19/25, 9:19 PM

    In case you think this is just showboating -- it isn't.

    The things he is saying and doing are not a joke, and should not be treated as one. The facade of "he's just messing around to make the left angry" is false and thin. He is telling you exactly what he aspires to be. Or, more accurately, he is attempting to assert that he already is one.

    If you believe in the ideals that America was founded upon, you should be angry. Fascism is here, and it's up to us to resist it. Please.

  • by inverted_flag on 2/19/25, 9:31 PM

    Sic semper tyrannis

  • by throwaway5752 on 2/19/25, 9:10 PM

    Beyond being just immature and a national embarrassment, this is the most un-patriotic thing a US president has ever said.

    And where are the libertarians? Reason.org has a few posts on New Mexico labor relations (arguing on the side of federalism and NLRB control, no less) and nothing about this. No principles whatsoever.

    It will be less than months, maybe weeks, before this begins impacting tech. Are you not paying attention? https://www.wired.com/story/brendan-carr-fcc-trump-speech-so...

    "Carr authored the Project 2025 chapter on the FCC, writing that the agency needed to prioritize issues like “reining in Big tech” and “promoting national security.” Specifically on his to-do list, Carr says that the FCC should issue an order that reinterprets Section 230 to eliminate the “expansive” liability immunities it provides to social platforms. Section 230 is part of the Communications Decency Act passed in 1996, which protects internet companies from being sued over content that appears on their platforms and has given companies the ability to decide what content can or cannot be posted.

    But there is no precedent for the FCC governing online speech, and experts tell WIRED that the agency has no authority to act on Trump and Carr’s speech prescriptions."

    This is coming for you next

  • by AnimalMuppet on 2/19/25, 10:27 PM

    Between this and Vance saying that the president can ignore the courts, it's getting harder and harder to think that this is joking, just narcissism, or just spur-of-the-moment shooting his mouth off.

  • by toomuchtodo on 2/19/25, 10:36 PM

  • by tim333 on 2/20/25, 10:39 AM

    NY governor:

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

    We shall see.

  • by amai on 2/20/25, 8:02 AM

    Back to the 17th century! But this time with more AI and nuclear bombs.

  • by timeon on 2/19/25, 11:25 PM

    People flagging whitehouse post apparently do not respect US president.

  • by ChrisArchitect on 2/19/25, 9:23 PM

    [flagged]

  • by throwawayforare on 2/19/25, 9:18 PM

    I left China two decades ago, believing America held itself to higher moral standards. But now, I’m watching it turn into another China—and the reality is a slap in the face.