Republicans Have Become A ‘Monarchist Party’ With Donald Trump As Their King, Political Historian Says

The Republican Party has turned into a “monarchist party” and see President Donald Trump as their king, a political historian claims.

Historian Jon Meacham spoke out against the behavior of the GOP in an interview with MSNBC this week, saying that Republicans have stopped abiding by the U.S. Constitution and instead are “following a man” regardless of his behavior.

Meacham, the author of several presidential biographies, said that modern Republicans have decided to stand by Trump through behavior that would abhor the founding fathers, which was “precisely what we were fighting against,” Newsweek reported.

“The Republicans have basically become a monarchist party. Trump is their king, and their king right or wrong,” he said.

“And it’s interesting because in the spirit and the ethos of the founding era, that was precisely what we were fighting against, and what the first great political opposition in the country led by Jefferson and Madison against Hamilton and Adams and Washington was trying to fight against.”

Not long after Meacham’s comments, the House Judiciary Committee voted to approve two articles of impeachment against Trump and send them to the full House for a vote. Trump is expected to be impeached by the Democratic-led House, but most political experts say a conviction in the Senate is unlikely as it would require a significant number of Republicans to turn on Trump.

As Meacham noted, few Republicans have been willing to break with Trump during the impeachment process. Though few have echoed Trump’s claims that his call pressuring the Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden was “perfect,” they have carried on his attacks on Democrats and claims that the process is unfair.

Meacham, who eulogized former President George H.W. Bush at his funeral, has been critical of Trump in the past, saying in July that he is the “most racist president” the United States had ever seen. As HuffPost reported, Meacham spoke out after Trump had made a series of controversial tweets telling four Democratic Congresswomen of color to go back to their “broken” and “crime-infested” countries. Of the four, three were American-born while another immigrated from Somalia and is a naturalized citizen.

The tweets drew widespread condemnation from both sides of the aisle. Meacham attempted to place the attack in historic context noting that Trump’s obsession with birthrights was among the most racist sentiments shared by a president. He added Trump’s history as a leader of birtherism, the unfounded idea that America’s first black president, Barack Obama, was not born in the United States.