In Berlin this past Sunday, a sign was hoisted atop the crowd against the blue-grey sky that looks like an oversized meme. But it simply says ‘NO KINGS’ with a distorted depiction of an exasperated, disgusted Lady Liberty. It was one scene among many that broke out in European cities of Paris, Munich, Rome, Lisbon, Copenhagen, and London, happening alongside similar demonstrations in US cities last weekend as well.
That these protests would garner momentum in Europe is not surprising. Since 2016, a persistent claim against Donald Trump’s presidency is that he is an authoritarian: An American leader seizing power rather than governing within it. This cry has gained ground particularly in Europe, where the President’s critics have succeeded in convincing millions of this false narrative and, in many cases, conflating his rhetoric with the reality of his governance.
The authoritarian label is present more abundantly in President Trump’s second term than his first. And no doubt, the manner in which the President and his administration wield power is certainly unconventional. If Trump’s first four years in office taught this movement anything, it’s that delivering on the mandate comes at a steep cost of fighting entrenched ideological opposition. So, one could say his style is part of a greater governing theory rooted in effectiveness, where wielding power is not treated as something to be excessively justified before it is exercised, lest it be sabotaged at the hands of the Left.
Yet, the authoritarian characterisation implies a forceful rejection of the democratic processes or an illegal seizure of power that leaves opponents needlessly crippled. The President is doing neither of these things. What he is doing is working at a high velocity, especially in his first 100 days, which were marked by decisive action no other President in modern history has done. Closing the Southern border, stopping USAID, cracking down on crime in cities, for instance, were perfectly legal and within the fulfilment of a democratic mandate. Power should be used to do what voters elected a government to do: Actually govern.
The reality is that today, both Europe and the US have been captured by the Left, in the two most influential and prominent areas: The civil society and the civil service, both of which are overwhelmingly hostile to the messaging and the policy proposals of the Right. Successful right-wing governance necessarily requires confrontation, disruption, and President Trump’s “you can just do things” attitude in order to deliver on the voter’s mandate. These are not the actions of a tyrant.
There is a more ancient and sophisticated political insight at play with President Trump’s governance which is that elite authority is not wholly self-justifying. In the Roman political tradition, this insight was captured by the concept of nobilitas. Though sometimes misunderstood solely as an aristocratic title, nobilitas referred to inherited excellence confirmed and demonstrated by one’s excellent acts in present public life. Over time, Roman writers observed that this principle decayed. Sallust lamented that the ruling class retained honours while abandoning responsibility, writing that offices were sought not for service to the state, without care for the commonwealth. The language of legitimacy remained, yet its substance eroded; the elites became empty suits, or perhaps empty togas.
That dynamic feels familiar today, and it is much of what President Trump’s movement and similar currents are rebelling against. The governing class of Brussels still claims authority through credentials, process, and institutional continuity, but is distant from its people and has simply not delivered on the issues that matter most. Both President Trump’s appeal and actions are best understood in the rejection of this authority. Important to understand is that his issue lies with Europe’s elite, not with its people. It is a rejection of a class that, in his view, has preserved the appearance of competence while destroying its true glory – the glory that gave rise to great ideas, movements and culture, to which we as Americans owe our inheritance.
This is the same challenge that right-wing movements across Europe face. They are dismissed as authoritarian and illiberal, but they are often responding to the same perception, which is that decision-making has become detached from consequence. President Trump’s approach forces not just the question of who deserves power into the spotlight, but what power is for. Power is for outcomes and results. It is not for surrendering to a government by deliberation, especially when those deliberators were not democratically elected and carry strong Leftist ideologies intent on sabotaging an America First mandate.
Uncertainty of outcome does not negate the logic of the approach. It simply means that it must be evaluated on its results. In Iran, the outcome remains uncertain, and the costs are real. The same is true, in different ways, of Venezuela and the broader strategic posture now taking shape.
Trump’s America is reshaping the world in ways that are difficult to ignore. It is confronting adversaries with unequal burden sharing, it is reconfiguring alliances, and it is asserting control over resources and regions it deems strategically essential. It is, in effect, attempting to reintroduce a more forceful understanding of power into a system that has grown accustomed to managing decline through process. Obviously, this carries real risks. But a weak United States does not produce a more stable world. It produces one increasingly shaped by our adversaries that do not share our values or our vision for human freedom and dignity.
From that perspective, the question is not whether American power should be exercised, but whether it can afford not to be. And instead of dismissing President Trump as a power-hungry dictator, it would be more productive for our closest allies to engage seriously with the premise: That legitimacy cannot be sustained on credentials alone, and that leadership, if it is to endure, must once again prove itself through action.
Kristen Ziccarelli is a writer based in Washington D.C.
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