Independence Daddy

Putin, tanks, attack from the east... yeah, it's all there!
(Source: this blog, 17th June 2018)
And seven (biblical?) years - to the week - later:

And there we have it
(Source: youtube.com, The Independent, 25th June 2025)
It's been a nice couple of weeks, weekend getaway to Taiwan included. Some two months ago, it was suggested that the true meaning behind the tariffs signalling was that " I am The King, My Word is Law, Those That Deny It Stand Against Me, And I Will Have Their Heads", and all of these statements have duly been borne out.
On the title of King, the suspiciously-organized "No Kings" protests subsided as farce almost as soon as it began, with many demonstrations outside the United States having to rebrand themselves as "No Tyrants" because, well, they do have kings, and they kinda like their kings (or queens; also note that the top three nations on the Democracy Index - Norway, Sweden and New Zealand - are all monarchies). The White House Palace must be taking notes.
On his Word being Law, the One Big Beautiful Bill has just passed into law, fittingly on Independence Day.
And on Taking the Heads of those standing against him, the previous post has already noted that a number of Iranian generals and nuclear scientists have been missing theirs - which, by the way, should really be recognized as a pretty-obvious message to the world at large, on the picking of sides in Cold War II. To pile on the irony, the brief consideration about restoring exiled Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi - son of the former Shah, who was of course installed in a CIA coup - is further reminder that America never disliked kings, not really!
[To be continued...]