Under the name “No Kings,” a network of far-left activist groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Democratic Socialists of America, and the American Federation of Teachers, hosted thousands of protest events across the country last weekend. They weren’t the first No Kings protests of President Donald Trump’s second administration and will not be the last, according to the organizers. One wonders where these activists’ concerns were over the abuse of executive power by former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
The first No Kings event was held in February on Presidents Day, and another on April 19. The No Kings crowd has announced they will be in the streets again on July 17 in honor of the late Rep. John Lewis (D-GA).
“This country doesn’t belong to a king,” a statement from organizers reads. “On June 14th, we’re coming together to send one clear message: No Thrones. No Crowns. No Kings.”
We are unaware of Trump building a throne or wearing a crown, but when it comes to presidents abusing their executive authority to achieve political ends, there are plenty of examples to choose from… by presidents from the Democratic Party, not Trump.
Just days after Obama was reelected in 2012, his former chief of staff, John Podesta, issued a report through the Center for American Progress titled “The Power of the President.” The report provided a road map for Obama to “govern the country as chief executive” through “strength, resolve, and a capacity to get things done.” No mention was made of working with Congress to pass new laws. The focus of the report was what Obama should do without Congress. That is exactly what Obama did.
His flagrant abuse of executive power began in his first term, most famously when he granted amnesty to illegal immigrants who entered the country when they were minors. While this Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was not immediately challenged in federal court, Obama’s second-term Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, which gave amnesty to the parents of DACA recipients, was challenged and found to be unconstitutional. Importantly, both DACA and DAPA had the same legal justification. So DACA is every bit as illegal as DAPA was found to be.
Obama followed that rebuke with unilateral efforts to rewrite our education system; he tried to use the Clean Air Act to shut down all coal plants — another plan eventually quashed by the Supreme Court — and he even tried to take over the internet through his Net Neutrality regulation plan, which federal courts also shot down.
Biden proved himself every bit as monarchical as Obama. He tried to force every employee in the country to take the COVID-19 vaccine or be fired. He instituted a national rent control plan ending evictions and tried to give college graduates a trillion-dollar debt bailout nationwide. Fortunately, the Supreme Court stepped in and stopped these abuses of power. Biden did his worst damage at the border. By flagrantly ignoring immigration laws, he orchestrated the largest mass migration in our history, a demographic choice for which no American voted.
Let us not forget that the Democratic Party rigged the 2016 presidential primary for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), from 2020 to 2024 ran a puppet government while propping up a mentally unfit president, cleared the primary field to reelect him, and then installed another candidate without a primary.
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This is the party that is lecturing the nation about democracy? Please.
Trump is far from a perfect president. On issues such as trade and immigration, not to mention conflicts of interest that are enriching his family, he is abusing his executive powers. But he is not the first president to do so, and Democrats would be wise to come up with another line of argument if they want to rebuild credibility with voters.
