Citizen of Earth

King Charles III just told Congress executive power has limits. Democrats stood immediately. Republicans took their time. Trump was the unspoken subject of every sentence.

Charles addressed a joint session of Congress Tuesday. The speech was a quiet demolition of everything the president he had dined with the night before stands for.

He cited the Magna Carta. He cited the 160 Supreme Court cases that have invoked it since 1789.

He landed the punch line: "not least as the foundation of the principle that executive power is subject to checks and balances." Democrats stood and applauded. Republicans, eventually, joined. The man who was speaking is, technically, a king. He came to the United States Capitol to remind the United States Congress that even kings have limits.

He talked about Christianity. He did not weaponize it. He talked about it as "a firm anchor and daily inspiration."

Then he said something the current administration has spent five years rejecting:

"Having devoted a large part of my life to interfaith relationships and greater understanding, it is that faith in the triumph of light over darkness, which I have found confirmed countless times. Through it, I am inspired by the profound respect that develops as people of different faiths grow in their understanding of each other."

A Christian king praising interfaith dialogue. In the Capitol of the country whose Defense Department just had Pulp Fiction read at it as a prayer.

Then he came to NATO. The alliance Trump has threatened to leave. The alliance Trump has called obsolete. The alliance whose members died in Afghanistan because Article 5 was invoked for the first time after 9/11.

"In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when NATO invoked Article 5 for the first time, and the United Nations Security Council was united in the face of terror, we answered the call together, as our people have done so for more than a century, shoulder to shoulder, through two world wars, the Cold War, Afghanistan, and moments that have defined our shared security."

Then the line about Ukraine: "Today, Mr. Speaker, that same unyielding resolve is needed for the defense of Ukraine and her most courageous people."

Ukraine. The country Trump told Zelensky was "gambling with World War III." The country Trump has cut weapons to. The country Trump has all but ceded to Putin.

A British king. Speaking from a podium installed by an act of Congress. Defending limits on executive power, religious pluralism, NATO, and Ukraine. To a Republican Party that no longer believes in any of it.

The historical irony writes itself. Two hundred and fifty years ago, our great-great-great-grandparents fought a revolution rather than answer to a British king.