A proven way to remove a leader is to accuse him of trying to become a king. The Democrats keep trying this, but they lack a great orator to make the case in a way that gets the guy out. The classic speaker for this, someone most everyone in college read, was Marcus Tullius Cicero. Take, for example, his speech against Catiline, his fellow senator, that got Catiline removed, and then murdered. I’ve copied a bit below, in translation from Latin.

WHEN, O Catiline, do you mean to cease abusing our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us? When is there to be an end of that unbridled audacity of yours, swaggering about as it does now? Do not the nightly guards placed on the Palatine Hill—do not the watches posted throughout the city—does not the alarm of the people, and the union of all good men—does not the precaution taken of assembling the senate in this most defensible place—do not the looks and countenances of this venerable body here present, have any effect upon you?
Do you not feel that your plans are detected? Do you not see that your conspiracy is already arrested and rendered powerless by the knowledge which every one here possesses of it? What is there that you did last night, what the night before—where is it that you were—who was there that you summoned to meet you—what design was there which was adopted by you, with which you think that any one of us is unacquainted?
Shame on the age and on its principles! The senate is aware of these things; the consul sees them; and yet this man lives. Lives! aye, he comes even into the senate. He takes a part in the public deliberations; he is watching and marking down and checking off for slaughter every individual among us. And we, gallant men that we are, think that we are doing our duty to the republic if we keep out of the way of his frenzied attacks.
You ought, O Catiline, long ago to have been led to execution by command of the consul. That destruction which you have been long plotting against us ought to have already fallen on your own head……
……. speech, source.

It’s strong stuff, far better than the democrats have yet presented, with lines of innuendo and attack that have been reused many times since. Cicero claims to understand the thoughts of Catiline as he sits in the senate. He accuses Catiline, not only of wanting to be king, but of wanting their deaths: “He is watching and marking down and checking off for slaughter every individual among us.” Catiline was exiled, and then, with Cicero’s encouragement executed without trial. Julius Caesar argued for Catiline, claiming he should be imprisoned, but no more. So Caesar was exiled to fight the Britains and Gauls.

In timer Cicero and his friends came to believe that Caesar too had become too successful and uncontrollable. He now wished to be king like Catiline. According to Cicero:

“Men who become uncontrollable and overconfident as a result of success need to be put through a round of training in reason until they recognize the fragility of human affairs and the uncertainty of fortune.”

In the senate, Marcus Cato, a friend Cicero’s, argued that Caesar’s fight with the Gauls was illegal and immoral, as Democrats argue today. Cato demanded that Caesar should be stripped of power before he did the evil deeds that Cato saw in Caesar’s mind. The senate agreed, but Caesar, knowing how that was likely to turn out, fought Cato’s friends, returned to Rome, and pardoned Cicero 45 BCE. About 1 year later on the 15th of March, a group of Caesars friends and colleagues stabbed him to death in the senate, Caesar’s son leading as recounted here. A year later, 43BCE, in the bloody civil war that followed Cicero was murdered. What goes around comes around.

I’m not convinced that Cicero’s attacks were legitimate as they’re based on Cicero claiming to know the evil thoughts in the mind of his targets. The attacks worked, in a fashion, they caused the death of Catiline and Caesar, but they didn’t benefit Cicero, long term, nor result in freedom for Rome. The bloody war produced Rome’s first all-powerful emperor. It’s a warning, I think for those pushing for the untimely removal of Trump: you could get a leader who’s worse. It’s a rallying cry that has worked for centuries, but requires a speaker who can convince audiences that he knows what his enemy is thinking. So far, no Democrat has managed to convince an audience that he knows what Trump will do next.

Robert Buxbaum, June 23, 2026