Conventional wisdom holds that President Donald J. Trump is a non-politician who brought a disruptive and largely business-based approach to elected office. As a result, Mr Trump has largely surrounded himself with cabinet officers and senior staff who have succeeded in business. And the president bragged how easy governing would be and how great he would make America because of his business triumphs and experience. But consider a non-conventional alternative assessment. President Trump may be better understood as a prince, king or emperor. He sees himself if not vested with a divine right to rule certainly in that realm. As a monarch, he believes his word is the absolute truth and must be taken as such even when he changes what that truth is on a frequent basis. He surrounds himself not so much with a cabinet as with a court. His courtiers must not merely flatter the prince, king or emperor. They must show abject loyalty. The display last month of the cabinet meeting where all but one or two offered absurd amounts of praise describing the ‘honour’ of serving on his team was worse than bad taste. It was an offensive display of excessive obsequiousness. Clearly, the mantel of royalty extends to the Trump family. Daughter Ivanka is more than primus inter pares among advisors. She was “acting” president assuming his chair at the G-20 meeting when Mr Trump excused himself. No president would have ever have dreamed of emulating that stunt. Son-in-law Jared Kushner is the sorcerer’s apprentice being able to work magic across his vast portfolio from bringing peace to the Middle East to revitalising the nation’s infrastructure. And it may be no Freudian slip that the youngest Trump son is named Baron. One of the crown princes, Junior Trump, appears more clown prince not knowing or ignoring the law in accepting a meeting with whom he was informed were representatives of the Russian government armed with damaging information on presidential rival Hillary Clinton. The other son Eric has remained below the radar so far. But when the family travels, it does so as a court and at huge government expense for security and the large entourage of courtiers. While the president does not have residences quite as regal or numerous as, say Britain’s Queen Elizabeth-II, he is pretty well off. His palaces are in Palm Beach’s Mar a Lago; New York’s Trump Tower; and Trump golf courses in Bedminster, New Jersey where the Ladies US Open was just played and in northern Virginia and are monuments to opulence. In fact, the official presidential Maryland retreat, Camp David, is a bit too rustic for the regal president’s liking. Moreover, he runs his government as if he were reigning and not ruling. His demands and ukases are reminiscent of another king, Canute who ordered the seas to recede. The president was going to build a wall. Mexico was to pay for it. Health care would be the best, cheapest and most accessible to all. The president called the nuclear Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran “the worst” agreement ever made. Yet his administration has reported to Congress again that Iran is in compliance. And what passes for his rule is done through royal decrees and not laws of the land. The founding fathers considered making George Washington king. Washington immediately dismissed the notion out of hand. In fact, the idea of royalty and noble rank was explicitly rejected despite its established roots in Britain. Had this president that option, it is interesting what his reaction would have been. Over time it is not inconceivable, no matter how unlikely, that Mr Trump might indeed choose to forfeit his crown for the life he once loved and was able to command as if he were a real monarch Finally, in his three trips abroad, the president acted more in the role of emperor dispensing his favours. Saudi Arabia was granted a certain status by the visit and offered tribute in the form of purchasing many tens of billion of dollars of US arms. NATO was snubbed the first time round by the president’s premeditated decision not to mention Article 5, the centrepiece of the alliance. Later, the president would restate the Article 5 commitment in Warsaw perhaps because the alliance had “succumbed” to his order to spend more on defence in which “billions are rolling in.” The royal analogy may seem a bridge too far. The Oval Office has a certain cache. Air Force One with its huge supporting cadre when the president flies is impressive and even regal. But presidential tweets in a sense are akin to royal diktats and proclamations that are issued on a daily basis. Obviously, the president is not a prince or an emperor. There is however one king who might prove relevant: Britain’s Edward-VIII. Edward abdicated in 1936 choosing to give up the crown for the woman he loved. Mr Trump will not give up his crown on that basis. However, as his administration continues to stumble, make ill-considered and perhaps harmful decisions and learns that governing is not easy, the president’s attitude about the job may change. Over time it is not inconceivable, no matter how unlikely, that Mr Trump might indeed choose to forfeit his crown for the life he once loved and was able to command as if he were a real monarch. The writer has served on the Senior Advisery Group for Supreme Allied Commander Europe (2004-2016) and is currently Senior Adviser at Washington DC’s Atlantic Council, chairman of two private companies and principal author of The Doctrine of Shock and Awe. His next book due out this year is Anatomy of Failure: Why America Loses Wars. It argues failure to know and to understand the circumstances in which force is used guarantees failure. The writer can be reached on Twitter @harlankullman Published in Daily Times, July 27th 2017.