Lèse Majesté, Showerheads, and Treason

A few days ago, a U.S. academic was arrested in Thailand on charges of criticizing the monarch. The U.S. State Department expressed alarm and “longstanding concerns about the use of lèse majesté laws in Thailand.” Lèse-majesté means an offense against the dignity of the king, or of the state, which is embodied by the king.

 We have our own lèse majesté offenses now. 

A detailed process for making or repealing federal regulations requires notice and, usually, an opportunity for public comment. An April 9 Trump executive order, however, included a new claim: “Notice and comment is unnecessary because I am ordering the repeal.”

Because I am ordering it. Because I said so. Sounds like a royal decree. By order of the king.  

What was the crucial issue for this order? What was so urgent that all regular rules must be suspended?  

Showerheads.

“The Order frees Americans from excessive regulations that turned a basic household item into a bureaucratic nightmare. No longer will showerheads be weak and worthless.”

Stock markets are crashing, our allies can’t trust us, national defense is discussed over Gmail and Signal, and the president is issuing orders about showerheads? 

On April 9, Trump signed eight executive orders, three memoranda, and three proclamations. 

Memoranda are a curious construction, free of some of the legal requirements that, at least until this year, constrain executive orders. Two of the April 9 presidential memoranda target individuals whom Trump believes guilty of “offenses” properly characterized as lèse majesté. 

During his first term, Trump appointed Chris Krebs to lead the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). In an April 9 memorandum, he revoked Krebs’ security clearance and ordered a review of Krebs’ activities as a government employee and of “his associates.” 

Why? Trump’s memorandum says that Krebs “falsely and baselessly denied that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen.” 

So now it’s official—repeat the lies about a stolen election or face consequences. If you refuse to say that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen, you may be punished, along with your “associates.” 

In another April 9 memorandum, Trump ordered an investigation of Miles Taylor, a former Trump administration official who published first an anonymous op/ed and then a memoir critical of Trump. Trump called Taylor “an Egregious Leaker and Disseminator of Falsehoods.” 

Don’t criticize the king. 

Trump ordered “the Attorney General, the Director of National Intelligence, and all other relevant executive department and agency (agency) heads … to suspend any active security clearances held by Miles Taylor, in addition to individuals at entities associated with Taylor, including the University of Pennsylvania.” 

Trump’s official memorandum said that “this conduct could properly be characterized as treasonous and as possibly violating the Espionage Act.”

In Trump’s telling, lèse majesté is treason, an offense that carries the death penalty. 

I remember when Congress passed laws and the president signed them. This year Congress has passed four bills. As of April 9, Trump had signed 123 hundred executive orders, 33 proclamations, and 31 memoranda. 

L’état c’est moi.