In any so-called banana republic you need enablers. President Donald Trump has Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, and Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito leading the charge. Johnson is pulling Congress along with the justices who are the most ferocious defenders of Trump on the Supreme Court. It just takes a handful of enablers to allow a king to assume his crown — or to have a banana republic. And these guys are exceptionally good at what they do.

And as jaywalking is only a crime if enforced, Trump is allowed to continue on doing whatever he wants without guardrails or fear of getting a ticket — just like most Americans feel about jaywalking: It’s against the law, but who really cares?

The “No Kings Day” march that took place over the past weekend fell around the same date, as fate would have it, as the anti-Vietnam War march in Washington, D.C. (October 21, 1967). At that time, over 100,000 people marched to show then-President Lyndon Johnson their objection to the war. It eventually contributed to Johnson deciding to not seek re-election in 1968. It became clear to Johnson that he was losing not just the war but the faith of the American people. Last weekend, over seven million Americans marched across the nation in more than 3,000 venues to express their lack of faith in Trump.

Johnson responded to the 1967 march by aggressively engaging in a propaganda campaign to allow him to push his false narrative about the conditions in Vietnam. Trump has countered with a Looney Tune-like AI cartoon posted on his social media page in which he is depicted as a king flying a jet over a crowd of No Kings protesters and dumping load after load of what presumably is human feces on their heads. Not funny. Well, I am sure dictators like Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Iran’s leader and North Korea’s leader found it hilarious.

If any other U.S. president did the same, congressional leaders would not be smiling and condoning it with silence.

The No Kings march should be followed with a “no confidence” vote by state legislatures (state representatives and state senators). Such a follow-up act to the No Kings march would be a first, and it would be bad for Trump’s legacy, and it could act as strong pushback to his abuse of power. “We the People” do not have to wait until the 2026 mid-term elections to have our voices heard.

So, in order to be a king or an authoritarian you need enablers. Step up, Justice Thomas and Speaker Johnson.

We have numerous key questions before the court – American citizenship, voting rights, civil rights, threatening private institutions to conform to Trump’s wishes or risk losing federal funds via the use of very questionable non-traditional tactics, potentially imposing unfunded mandates on states, withholding federal funds for previously approved appropriations, tariffs (the soybean crisis caused by Trump’s tariffs could result in a $20 billion bailout to U.S. farmers), use of the U.S. military on citizens often with little to no proof of emergencies.

So, who would truly want to change the laws so they are not truly breaking the law?