Donald Trump's 'Mad King' Moment

Why 77 Million Americans Vote To Pull The Plug On The Greatest Country In The World

Fans of the hit 2010s HBO series Game Of Thrones will know the phrase “Mad King.” The title was given to King Aerys II Targaryen, who needlessly plunges his realm into civil war when, after a descent into madness, he executes a vital ally and orders the destruction of the capital city of King’s Landing and everyone in it. He is overthrown before the order is carried out, but in the series’ final season, Aerys’ daughter, Daenerys, sees the title of “Mad Queen” fall on her when she finishes the job and reduces King’s Landing and its citizens to ashes.

These were fictional characters, however, and though tens of millions of us watched them, and others, wreck havoc on their own people in service of their egos, we came away from the experience believing that they were figments of someone’s imagination, not in any way a representation of what a leader might do in the real world.

Then, Donald Trump sat on his iron throne this week and shattered that belief.