Trump Wants U.S. To Be Under British Rule?
Trump says he would be happy for the U.S. to become ‘associate’ Commonwealth members, which some people see as "undoing the Revolutionary War."
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When Donald talks… well. You know. A lot of people are confused.
Trump said he would be happy for US to become ‘associate’ Commonwealth members and now conservatives are buzzing with excitement about the idea, with far-right Reform Leader Nigel Farage writing, “A Commonwealth with the USA would complete the alliance of the English-speaking peoples and help prevent the spread of CCP influence.”
The Internet read this as the U.S. retreating back to being under the British Empire, with one commenter observing, “For all the shit I expect from this guy, undoing the check notes revolutionary war was not on the list.”
That isn’t exactly how the Commonwealth works but yeah, it’s not great optics. Another added, “When they say make America great again I didn’t think they meant 1776.”
How This All Started
"I love King Charles. Sounds good to me!" Trump wrote on Truth Social above an article in The Sun that said King Charles would secretly offer the U.S. associate membership in the Commonwealth during Trump's second state visit to Britain.
“Donald Trump has suggested he would be happy for the US to become an “associate member” of the Commonwealth if King Charles were to make the offer,” the Financial Times reported.
On Friday the government said the issue was a matter for the palace. However, British officials said privately that they were unaware of any such proposal.
The Sun news story followed a Daily Mail article that said plans were ‘allegedly in the works to make the USA the next ‘associate member’ of the Commonwealth”, adding that the idea was being discussed “at the highest levels”.
“Trump also reposted the same report about the king’s "secret" offer of membership late Saturday morning,” Fox News reported.
What Is it
It’s fair to assume that Trump doesn’t understand how the commonwealth works, since he doesn’t understand how the US government is supposed to work. He likely imagines a gold crown upon his carefully constructed coiffure while being celebrated by his longed-for military parade.
The Commonwealth was created in 1926 and formalized in 1931, which — for those in our government who never studied their country’s history — is long after the US became Independent of Britain.
King Charles III is the head of the Commonwealth.
Would the U.S. Even Qualify?
However, technically speaking, the U.S. might not meet the standards for the Commonwealth, as the Charter defines their shared values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
Those values are at odds with a President who is threatening to send U.S. citizens to a prison in El Salvador sans due process rights because they vandalized a Tesla and deporting anyone who protests Tesla. For that matter, hawking Teslas on the White House lawn in a tacky infomercial doesn’t exactly send the message that freedom in the U.S. is flourishing.
Also, the Commonwealth objectives read a lot like DEI, as they are commited to representative democracy, the pursuit of equality and opposition to racism and discrmination based on gender, and the fight against poverty and IGNORANCE (I rest my case). They even care about the environment. Yikes.
Although in reality, post-Brexit Britain will no doubt take whatever they can get from Trump, which is why they’ve tried to deploy the Royal Family to woo him. But who can blame them for trying to avoid the petulance of this White House. We can hardly expect them to uphold their own values when so many here are not.
They must understand how Trump works. Maybe they don’t care if they end up trampled with Trump crowning Don Jr the head of the Commonwealth after weeks of membership so long as they can avoid the tariffs. Or maybe they really don’t understand yet that this is not person of honor and he does not respect any boundary.\\
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