How Elon Musk’s Service to Trump Will Probably, Eventually End

A week ago Donald Trump went to both Truth Social and the White House’s official social media account to proudly quote what he thought was a line from Napoleon, stating that “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” (As a stickler I will point out that the quote actually comes from Balzac’s posthumous and sentimentally apocryphal 1838 Maxims and Thoughts of Napoleon — there is no proof Napoleon himself said it — and in any event is a mere epitome of Book III, Ch. 41 of Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy.) Then, a few days ago, Trump trollingly pronounced himself royalty after rescinding Kathy Hochul’s New York City car congestion tax with an AI-drawn Time magazine cover of himself wearing a crown and the all-caps statement “LONG LIVE THE KING!”

Yes, delusions of monarchy are in the air as we approach America’s semiquincentennial anniversary next year. This week CPAC has rolled into Washington, D.C., as very much its own Carnival of Fools, complete with knaves, lords, aspirants to the king’s court, courtesans, and a malodorous glut of freelance jesters. In fact, I’m kicking myself now for missing the easy editorial pitch: Fly me back to my old D.C. stomping grounds to cover CPAC as I educate an entire generation of shy Zoomer activists on how to at least drink in a memorably literary way.

About the Author

Jeffrey Blehar

Jeffrey Blehar is a National Review staff writer living in Chicago. He is also the co-host of National Review’s Political Beats podcast, which explores the great music of the modern era with guests from the political world happy to find something non-political to talk about.

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A week ago Donald Trump went to both Truth Social and the White House’s official social media account to proudly quote what he thought was a line from Napoleon, stating that “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” (As a stickler I will point out that the quote actually comes from Balzac’s posthumous and sentimentally apocryphal 1838 Maxims and Thoughts of Napoleon — there is no proof Napoleon himself said it — and in any event is a mere epitome of Book III, Ch. 41 of Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy.) Then, a few days ago, Trump trollingly pronounced himself royalty after rescinding Kathy Hochul’s New York City car congestion tax with an AI-drawn Time magazine cover of himself wearing a crown and the all-caps statement “LONG LIVE THE KING!”

Yes, delusions of monarchy are in the air as we approach America’s semiquincentennial anniversary next year. This week CPAC has rolled into Washington, D.C., as very much its own Carnival of Fools, complete with knaves, lords, aspirants to the king’s court, courtesans, and a malodorous glut of freelance jesters. In fact, I’m kicking myself now for missing the easy editorial pitch: Fly me back to my old D.C. stomping grounds to cover CPAC as I educate an entire generation of shy Zoomer activists on how to at least drink in a memorably literary way.

About the Author

Jeffrey Blehar

Jeffrey Blehar is a National Review staff writer living in Chicago. He is also the co-host of National Review’s Political Beats podcast, which explores the great music of the modern era with guests from the political world happy to find something non-political to talk about.