“The stereotype of him as an ogre is not historically true,” Atkinson said. “He’s called Farmer George because he’s interested in agronomy and writes essays on manure.”
The historian added, “You can dislike him, but he’s not a reactionary autocrat. He is very attentive to the requirements imposed on him as a consequence of the reforms in the 17th century, where he must be attentive to both houses of Parliament. He’s a child of the Enlightenment. He is a major supporter of both the arts and the sciences.” He plays the harpsichord and the organ, and he’s a great patron of the theatre (and doesn’t try to co-opt it or force people to watch Cats.)
Unlike Trump, Atkinson said, George is not a narcissist: “He’s very committed to the realm, to his family. He marries this obscure, drab German princess, Charlotte, as in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Charlotte, North Carolina. They marry six hours after they meet. She learns to play ‘God Save the King’ on the harpsichord on the voyage from Germany to England. He has the marriage bedroom decorated with 700 yards of blue damask and large basins of goldfish. Because, as you know, nothing says ‘I love you’ like a bowl of goldfish. He’s devoted to her through 15 kids.”
Atkinson said that the only similarity between the pious monarch and the impious monarch manqué is “the use of the military against their own people to enforce the king’s will. There are incidents, the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party.”
He added, “This proclivity for using armed forces for domestic suppression of dissent — that’s a slippery slope in this country. It led to an eight-year war when George did it, and Lord knows where it’s going to lead this time.”
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This is a poisonous moment for the United States, with Trump unleashing the military on American citizens and letting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers rough up Democratic lawmakers. He’s still posting, madly, about the 2020 election being “a total FRAUD,” and now he’s calling for a special prosecutor to look into it. With juvenile delinquent Pete Hegseth leading the military, Trump is recklessly jousting with Iran and threatening to assassinate the Iranian leader. The former opponent of forever wars in the Middle East is dropping bombs in the Middle East without military provocation against the United States — which did not work out well for us in the past — and dragging us into another unpredictable, interminable war.
We find this truth to be self-evident: This is the moment when we find out just how mad a king Trump is.
Atkinson concedes he is as mystified as the rest of us by Trump’s affinity for those who aren’t bound by the rules by which we insist our leaders be bound.
“The fact that we’re looking for a monarch to draw parallels to him is telling in and of itself, because that’s not what we do. That’s what the whole shooting match was about in the 1770s,” he said.
