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In the Russian Empire, as in many monarchies, the Tsar was viewed as a ruler chosen by God. This divine right meant, logically, that the Tsar himself could be seen as an extension of God. To maintain their hold on power, the Tsars embraced this idea, cultivating an image of a benevolent leader who always had the best of intentions.

But when things went wrong, at whose feet should the blame lie?

In 1944, Russian writer Viktor Nekrasov coined the phrase “Good Tsar, bad Boyars.” This phrase encapsulated the argument made by believers in naïve monarchism: if the Tsar was blameless, anything bad that happened was instead the fault of the boyars—the aristocrats and bureaucrats.

This naïve monarchical view was used by many leaders throughout Russian history:

• Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great regularly found nobles to blame, try, and execute for the failures of their governments

• Joseph Stalin’s purges targeted Soviet leaders, academics, doctors, and many others as scapegoats for the USSR’s failures.

• Vladimir Putin regularly uses this phenomenon to publicly humiliate other officials for his own failures, maintaining a relatively high personal approval rating within Russia even as trust in the government collapses.

Immediately after the end of World War II, many Germans held onto a view of Hitler as a Good Tsar. “If only the fuhrer knew” was a saying that circulated throughout the country—if only Hitler knew what Heydrich and Goebbels were up to, surely a good man like him would stop the tragedy!

If it was not abundantly obvious by now, let me make it so: Good Tsar, Bad Boyars is nothing more than an attempt to excuse the poor behavior of a leader who is otherwise held up on a pedestal.

A leader like Elon Musk.

A leader like Donald Trump.

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Elon’s Bad Boyars

When Elon Musk took over Twitter and promptly laid off 80% of the staff, the company’s valuation dropped. As the company’s valuation plummeted by 80% (hardly a coincidental number), he shifted the blame to advertisers and activists.

When his DOGE units got thousands of federal employees fired, Musk deflected blame by stating that his team doesn’t have the authority to hire and fire; other bureaucrats are the ones with that power. And when federal agencies made incorrect spending cuts, Musk claimed that this was due to their own incompetence or active sabotage of his efforts, not a result of his approach.

And as protests against Tesla cut the valuation of his company, Musk refuses to reflect on the impact his actions may have had on Tesla’s public profile. Instead, he blames George Soros and Reid Hoffman as the reason people won’t buy his cars anymore.

Trump the Good Tsar

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump did pretty much everything in his power to deflect blame. The lack of testing kits was Obama’s fault. PPE shortages were the fault of state Governors. Deaths caused by vaccine hesitancy were the fault of the World Health Organization.

As air traffic collisions are on the rise during his administration, Trump doesn’t accept that his reduction of air traffic control employees may be to blame. Nor does his administration look at the impact of the changes made by Trump’s Secretary of Transportation. Instead, Trump points to DEI.

When the Trump administration cuts off intelligence sharing to Ukraine and hundreds of innocent Ukrainian civilians die in the resulting Russian airstrikes, Trump does not accept a connection between his actions and unnecessary death. Instead, Trump blames Zelenskyy for starting the war.

When they targeted federal agencies and stopped paying contracts they were legally required to fulfill, Trump’s government was sued. And when the Supreme Court ruled against him, team Trump didn’t accept the outcome of the case. No, they framed the Supreme Court as an obstructionist wing of Trump-hating bureaucrats, and cried that Trump needed more power over the court.

The Tailspin

The Good Tsar, Bad Boyars trope can and should be cause for concern when employed in our country. Not only is it concerning for us to be importing the ideals of a historically totalitarian country and culture, the acceptance of this trope can pave the way to rapid shifts toward authoritarianism.

As a part of the Trump Policy Scam Cycle, this naïve monarchism can be used to shift the blame to outside parties. As a result, Trump’s team can use his failures to argue for a greater consolidation of power when those very failures show why he should have less.

After Trump’s unilateral announcement of sweeping tariffs against our closest allies, the stock market saw its worst performance in years. While any reasonable person can draw a clear line between Trump’s tariffs and the collapsing markets, Trump actually argued that these market declines were the result of globalist collusion. And at a time when he should be backing down from his tariff madness, he is doubling down on inflammatory language about turning Canada into the 51st state.

We are in a tailspin, folks. And it looks like this:

• Trump implements a bad policy

• Something bad happens

• Trump blames the bad thing happening on some “Bad Boyars” somewhere and claims he needs more power

• The Republican Party does nothing to keep him in check

• Trump finds a way to gain more power

• Trump implements an even worse policy

When our congress is too feckless and cowardly to push back, and our media atmosphere is too divided for a signal to break through the noise, there is no effective counterweight against Trump for now.

But eventually the shoe will drop.

Bad Boyars, Good Tsar fell apart after Tsar Nicholas II plunged the country into irrevocable chaos. It is starting to fall apart for Musk as Tesla and SpaceX face public relations backlash and dried up pipelines due to his terrible behavior. And it will eventually fall apart for Trump as people decide that the eggs are still too expensive and their 401ks are too dried up to tolerate his antics.

And I believe the waves are forming: a poll conducted this month in Michigan found that Kamala Harris would beat Trump 48% to 41% if the election were held today, with 41% of independents switching their vote to Harris. Voter regret is real.

The tide is going out. The emperor has no clothes, and there are only so many more scapegoats he can hide behind.

The Republican Party is in the same boat that Tesla shareholders are in: when is the chaos too much for us to tolerate? When do we reach the point where we must excise the tumor or let the cancer take over?

It’s not too late yet. But the shoe has to drop. The tide has to go out. And the enablers have to make a decision.