\n<\/p>\n
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.<\/p>\n
A man with the power to destroy the entire world announces that no one and nothing can restrain him. \u201cI can do whatever I want,\u201d he says. Raised without love, he has become both omnipotent and neurotic. Unfortunately, his inner circle is a group of hapless subordinates who are scared to death of him. The corporations and public-relations spinmeisters who created and sold him to the public now realize that they are powerless to stop him.<\/p>\n
I am speaking, of course, of Homelander, the evil version of Superman who is the main antagonist in The Boys, the Amazon series based on a series of graphic novels. Homelander (played to menacing, narcissistic perfection by the actor Antony Starr) is both ludicrous and terrifying. Like Superman, he can fly and shoot lasers from his eyes, but his brain is definitely not superpowered: Immature and somewhat dim, he is ruled by impulse, rage, and ego.<\/p>\n
Watching Tuesday\u2019s Cabinet meeting\u2014a three-hour-plus public ritual of sycophantic praise for Donald Trump from his lieutenants\u2014I couldn\u2019t help but think of Homelander. President Trump, like the sadistic superhero, is surrounded by grown men and women who are reduced to simpering flunkies in his presence. (\u201cThere\u2019s only one thing I wish for,\u201d the presidential envoy Steve Witkoff said during the meeting, that the \u201cNobel Committee finally gets its act together and realizes that you are the single finest candidate since the Nobel Peace, this Nobel award was ever talked about.\u201d Yikes.)<\/p>\n
Little wonder that Trump sees no limits to his power. When asked about his authority to deploy the National Guard, Trump said: \u201cI have the right to do anything I want to do. I\u2019m the president of the United States. If I think our country\u2019s in danger\u2014and it is in danger in these cities\u2014I can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you\u2019d like to see Starr as Homelander saying much the same thing, you can watch that here. (But be warned: The language and some of the images are definitely NSFW.)<\/p>\n
The parallel isn\u2019t perfect, but both the fictional villain and the real president seem to share a childlike need for adoration and are quick to anger when contradicted. And both could destroy most of the planet. Homelander could do it with his eyes and his muscles. Trump could do it with a small card he carries that would allow him to order the launching of almost 2,000 nuclear weapons anywhere he dictates.<\/p>\n
The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke is no fan of the president and intentionally made the television version of Homelander a parody of Trumpism. But the president\u2019s more cultish followers have embraced the satire, and during the \u201cMillion MAGA March\u201d in the nation\u2019s capital, back in 2020, at least one Trump admirer showed up dressed as Homelander\u2014apparently unaware that the character is a stupid, vain psychopath. (\u201cUm \u2026 are they actually watching the show?\u201d Kripke asked on social media.) Trump, for his part, makes the comparison with a super-bully too easy: In only a matter of months, he has put soldiers on American streets, unleashed the Justice Department on his critics, strong-armed corporations into neo-socialist arrangements with the government, and functionally allied the United States with the dictator in the Kremlin, among other depredations.<\/p>\n
In the end, Trump\u2019s critics and Homelander\u2019s enemies face the same question: However they got here, both of these men now seem unstoppable. As the former Trump aide Marc Short told The Wall Street Journal yesterday, \u201cI think he\u2019s learned there is not much that can really stop him from what he wants.\u201d<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know how The Boys will end Homelander\u2019s story. But Donald Trump is not a superhero: He\u2019s a politician whose powers and abilities are only those of mortal men. He is limited by the Constitution, by American law, by Congress (despite its current fecklessness), and especially by the courts, which seem so far to be Trump\u2019s kryptonite. Other actions could constrain Trump further\u2014if voters in the pro-democracy coalition have the courage and the endurance to take them.<\/p>\n
First, everyone, including ordinary citizens, media leaders, and elected officials\u2014especially Republicans\u2014should speak plain truth every time Trump says something as bonkers as \u201cI have the right to do anything I want to do.\u201d No, Mr. President, you do not: The powers of the presidency, especially in matters of national security, are indeed considerable, but they are not boundless, and Americans should all say so, every day, to their neighbors, to the reporters and commentators they watch and read, and especially to their elected officials.<\/p>\n
Saying things out loud is important. (Consider the courage shown this week by former CDC Director Susan Monarez, who refused to meekly go along with the Trump administration\u2019s attempts to force her out of her position.) I am among many who are frustrated by the continual sane-washing of Trump\u2019s statements by reporters who must contend with his gibberish, but no one should be pressed harder to speak up than elected Republicans. Unlike Homelander, Trump cannot reduce them to a pile of smoking ashes with his eyes if they anger him. He can make their lives miserable, and perhaps even cost them their jobs. But Trump turns on almost everyone at some point, so why not start pushing back now?<\/p>\n
Everyday citizens have options as well. The president\u2019s strength rests on obedient majorities in Congress, and that power can be stripped from him at the ballot box. Elected Republicans\u2019 jobs are in danger at all levels of government, as the Democratic capture of an Iowa state-Senate seat this week showed. Trump is worried, which is why he\u2019s so eager to have red states conjure up extra House seats as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
And finally, it\u2019s important to remember\u2014and, again, to say out loud\u2014how ridiculous Trump is when he launches into his woozy, narcissistic harangues. Authoritarians build their regimes by creating an aura of strength and inevitability around themselves, daring anyone to oppose them or focus on their weaknesses. Laughing in their face when they say I can do anything I want is a powerful antidote to their bullying. So far, California Governor Gavin Newsom seems to have perfected this kind of satire, and it\u2019s clearly getting under Trump\u2019s nanometer-thin skin.<\/p>\n
Homelander, according to Kripke, is not invulnerable. Neither is Trump, and citizens of the United States need not treat him as if he is an eternal being in a cape. He is doing real damage to the nation, and no one should underestimate the dangers he poses to the constitutional order. But at these odd moments when Trump tries to posture like a superhero, perhaps the most effective response for Americans who care about fighting for constitutional democracy is to put aside their partisan differences\u2014and then laugh, sue if necessary, and, always, vote.<\/p>\n
Even Trump can\u2019t fly away from all of that.<\/p>\n
Related:<\/p>\n
Here are four new stories from The Atlantic:<\/strong><\/p>\n Today\u2019s News<\/strong><\/p>\n Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump, who tried to fire her earlier this week. The lawsuit says that his move was \u201cunprecedented and illegal\u201d and argues that it undermined the Fed\u2019s independence.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Dispatches<\/strong><\/p>\n Explore all of our newsletters here.<\/em><\/p>\n Evening Read<\/strong><\/p>\n Jacqueline Reynolds swings during tryouts for the Women\u2019s Professional Baseball League. Jess Rapfogel \/ Getty<\/p>\n What Women\u2019s Baseball Will Look Like<\/p>\n By Kaitlyn Tiffany<\/p>\n The mosquitoes and the National Guard were out, but it was otherwise a perfect day in the capital. Clear and sunny, not too hot: baseball weather. The first pitch was at about 9:30 in the morning. A player waiting in the dugout yammered \u201cWhaddaya say, whaddaya say\u201d before nearly every pitch. Another, after working a long at-bat and winning a walk, celebrated by turning to her teammates and tossing her bat gently toward them with both hands, palms up, like she was presenting them with a gift.<\/p>\n It was a regular workday, a Monday, for the rest of Washington, D.C., but inside Nationals Park, it was the final day of tryouts for the new Women\u2019s Professional Baseball League.<\/p>\n Read the full article.<\/p>\n More From The Atlantic<\/em><\/p>\n Culture Break<\/p>\n Illustration by The Atlantic. Source: Getty; Alamy.<\/p>\n Read. Parenting drove the evolution of human language, Madeleine Beekman argues in her new book, The Origin of Language. Elissa Strauss suggests that that may help us rethink how we raise children today.<\/p>\n Watch. The new movie Splitsville (in select theaters) understands why modern romance makes open marriages so appealing, Faith Hill writes.<\/p>\n Play our daily crossword.<\/p>\n Rafaela Jinich contributed to this newsletter.<\/p>\n When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting <\/em>The Atlantic.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. A man with the power to destroy the entire world announces that no one and nothing can restrain him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[1671,11083,1059],"class_list":{"0":"post-18205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-atlantic","9":"tag-homelander","10":"tag-president"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n