America today feels a lot like Act III of a Shakespearean drama. Our hero is a deeply flawed but larger-than-life regal figure who — like Macbeth — believes he lives a charmed life. But like King Lear, he demands complete fealty from his underlings as his mental state deteriorates.
The “Mad King†in the White House is a man who, like Teddy Roosevelt, wants to be the “bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral.†The White House official page posted, and President Donald Trump reposted, an AI-generated image of himself in pope regalia. His family is allegedly selling access to the White House for crypto currency. In a “Meet the Press†interview, he dodged the questions, “Is it your job to uphold the Constitution?†and “Do you believe everyone deserves due process?â€
That same day, aboard Air Force One, he railed at a reporter: “The Wall Street Journal has truly gone to hell. Rotten newspaper. You hear me? It’s a rotten newspaper!†The day before, his commencement address at the University of Alabama sounded like one of his unhinged political rallies.
Hardly anyone believes this situation will get better, and we can only imagine the palace intrigue going on right now. While some are jockeying to be the MAGA heir apparent in 2028, others are looking into impeachment and even invoking Article 25 of the Constitution, which allows for the Cabinet to remove a president who is “unable to perform his duties.â€
In Shakespeare’s political dramas, a group of noblemen typically conspire to overthrow the tyrant in the end. But not before they make the same rookie mistakes. Often, they afford the despot the respect the office deserves when the despot respects no man and no institution. Others, like Hamlet, lack the resolve to do what must be done.
Eventually, though, Macbeth meets MacDuff, whose wife and children were brutally murdered in the King’s paranoid purge. “We’ll have thee, as our rarer monster are, painted on a pole and underwrit: ‘Here you may see the tyrant!’â€
Will someone become Trump’s MacDuff? Here are some likely suspects.
Former Vice President Mike Pence. No one was more loyal to the mad king than Pence. But when Trump incited a mob to subvert the peaceful transfer of power on Jan. 6, 2021, he put Pence’s head in the noose (nearly literally). Earlier this month, Pence was given the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award for his refusal to violate the Constitution, putting him and his family in peril. More and more, Pence is speaking out against the Trump administration’s policies on Ukraine, tariffs and more. He walks the evangelical walk, and his calm and measured demeanor could be the perfect antidote to the Trump chaos.
Vice President JD Vance. It’s widely known that the “Hillbilly Elegy†author and first-term Ohio senator was not Trump’s first choice for running mate in 2024. Vance, for his part, was no fan of Trump early on. Vance is the protege of right-wing tech billionaire Peter Thiel, who espouses a far-fetched world view: to replace our republican democracy with a corporate plutocracy based on some sort of crypto-currency. Thiel helped finance Trump’s campaign; Vance might be plotting Part 2 of Thiel’s plan.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune. After Trump’s second impeachment trial, the South Dakota senator said, “What former President Trump did to undermine faith in our election system and disrupt the peaceful transfer of power is inexcusable.†This prompted Trump to call Thune weak and oppose his election to be majority leader. He finally fell in line behind the president after a kiss-and-make-up visit to Mar-a-Lago. But Thune is in a very powerful position as midterms approach and some Republicans begin to break with the more unpopular MAGA policy positions.
Marco Rubio. This is a long shot. Still, no one looks more miserable in Oval Office and Cabinet photos than the man Trump once called “Little Marco.†With four different roles in the Trump administration, Rubio is the point man of controversial foreign policies: supporting Russia over Ukraine, shipping immigrants to foreign countries without due process, cutting foreign aid and weakening our alliances with NATO countries. That also makes him the most likely fall guy if those policies fail. “Marco Rubio is going to be in a very difficult position over time,†said former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who served as an under-secretary of Homeland Security, in an interview with USA Today. “I don’t think he feels very comfortable.†Rubio is well-liked among his former Senate colleagues and in Florida. He could be lying in wait for the political winds to shift between now and 2028.
Of course, life doesn’t always imitate art. But for those of us who find the Trump administration increasingly corrupt and incompetent, can’t we at least dream?
