When the Rev. Father Francis Mann read the last benediction at Donald Trump's inaugural ceremony, he ended by saying, "Americans kneel to God and to God alone."

But in President Donald Trump's second inaugural speech, and in the executive orders he's issued since, it is clear he expects Americans and the world to kneel to him.

Not since George Washington refused to let Americans make him a king has a president made so clear he intends to rule like one.

On Monday, Trump repeated his "I was saved (from assassination) by God to make America great again" mantra. (Despite his repeated references to God, the president swore his oath without placing his hand on either of the two Bibles Melania Trump held out to him, one a Lincoln Bible and the second a Bible Trump's mother gave him.)

But beyond the fake piety and repetition of past grievances, his speech was full of grandiose pledges to "annihilate" America's problems (note the word choice). His executive orders, and accompanying actions, were those of an ascendant autocrat, threatening anyone who dares to criticize him during the next four years.

The president exuded the energy of a man convinced he has nearly absolute power and no one can stop him, backed by a cluster of the world's richest tech multibillionaires seated close by in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda who had already knelt to his demands.

Nothing better illustrates that sense of omnipotence than his immediate pardon of nearly all the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters, and the commutation of sentences for the remaining 14. He did it just after being inaugurated in the same Capitol Rotunda they had defiled.

Even Vice President JD Vance had advised the list be culled to exclude the most violent, who had attacked police. These were insurrectionists who tried, on Trump's orders, to stop the certification of the free and fair 2020 election.

Trump set free wannabe cop-killers who also threatened to kill Vice President Mike Pence, including the leaders of the dangerous white nationalist groups the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. The first two released, Andrew and Matthew Valentin, brothers from Pennsylvania, had just been sentenced to two and a half years for assaulting uniformed police.

King Trump was clarifying that his campaign promises to ultra-MAGA fans meant more than inaugural promises to "protect law-abiding citizens."

Most terrifying, Trump has just inspired a legion of potential brownshirts, released from jail and listening for their leader's orders, whether expressed directly or not, to threaten anyone in Congress or the media or civil society who criticizes the White House.

Consider the moving remarks made on CNN by Michael Fanone, a Washington, D.C., police officer who was beaten and subsequently had a heart attack during the insurrection. Because Fanone had the courage to testify before Congress, MAGA supporters called his wife and threatened her. They threw human feces at his mother as she was raking leaves.

Add that to the threats issued against representatives, senators, and governors who have dared to do their jobs correctly, or have acted according to the law in ways that anger Trump, and you can imagine how this menace could metastasize.

"The Republicans today have a monopoly on hypocrisy because tonight (Trump) pardoned thousands of police assaulters," Fanone said bitterly.

Even police or National guardsmen or military leaders are no longer safe if they annoy Trump.

King Trump has made no secret he intends to fire generals who do things he dislikes, such as sticking to the Constitution. His past remarks and current executive orders, as well as nominations of Pete Hegseth to head the U.S. Defense Department and Kash Patel to head the FBI, along with Pam Bondi at the U.S. Justice Department, make clear he is bent on revenge.

Those appointees were picked in large part because they are ready to use any means to go after former officials of any political persuasion who were considered disloyal. In his book Government Gangsters, Patel declares the need to pursue at least four pages' worth of names of past government officials from both parties.

So when the new president assured Americans in his inaugural that "Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents," he was clearly speaking only about his supporters.

King Trump is ready to show that utter loyalty from subordinates, going beyond what he demanded previously, is now required. And the penalty may be more severe than being fired.

One particularly insane case of Trump vengeance is his pursuit of former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley — whom he appointed. The general ran afoul of Trump when he apologized to Americans for walking beside the president in uniform, used as a photo op prop after peaceful demonstrators were violently pushed out of Lafayette Square in 2020.

Trump's ill will later prompted him to declare Milley guilty of treason and deserving of execution for following the orders of then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper in a warning to China.

To see how ridiculous Trump's obsession with Milley has become, members of the president's team, acting on his behalf, had a portrait of Milley removed from a Pentagon wall just after the inaugural. A preemptive pardon from President Joe Biden will spare the general any royal attempt to imprison the former senior officer.

But we have already seen within a day of his swearing-in how America's new leader imagines his unchecked ability to ignore the Constitution and pursue his enemies. He cannot yet send those enemies to prison by fiat or poison them — as his pal Russian President Vladimir Putin prefers — but he is prepared to undermine U.S. security and prosperity with his imperial sense of what is now possible.

Our best hope is that some Americans who voted for Trump will soon see they were conned, and that some strong-willed Republicans can convince him his overreach will lead to midterm defeat in 2026.

Otherwise, King Trump will rage unchecked as he tears America apart.

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