CNUT REDUX

BACK NEAR THE CLOSE OF TRUMP 1.0, SimanaitisSays recounted “King Cnut’s Bad Rap,” September 11, 2020. As noted back then, Wikipedia recounts, “He is popularly invoked in the context of King Canute and the tide, which often misrepresents him as a deluded monarch believing he has supernatural powers, contrary to the original legend which portrays a wise king who rebuked his courtiers for their fawning behavior.”

Cnut the Great, c. 990 A.D.-1035 A.D., King of England from 1016, Denmark from 1018, and Norway from 1028 until his death. Together, his domain was known as the North Sea Empire. Contemporary portrait, cropped, from Liber Vitae, 1031.

Also, The Oxford Book of Royal Anecdotes cites the full story, albeit related 53 years after Cnut’s death: Upon the advancing tide, Henry of Huntingdon wrote, “Cnut leapt backward and said, ‘Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but He whom heaven, earth, and the sea obey by eternal laws….’ From thenceforth, King Canute never wore his crown of gold, but placed it for a lasting memorial on the image of Our Lord affixed to the cross, to the honour of God the Almighty King.”

Back in 2020, I rated Henry of Huntingdon’s narrative as wisely composed indeed, if apocryphal.

Today’s King Trump. Never waste a myth, I say. And here I consider King Trump’s recent encounters with the inevitable tides of science and justice. To wit:

Climate Change: A Hoax?? Lisa Friedman reports, “Trump Administration Erases the Government’s Power to Fight Climate Change,” The New York Times, February 12, 2026: “The action is a key step in removing limits on carbon dioxide, methane and four other greenhouse gases that scientists say are supercharging heat waves, droughts, wildfires and other extreme weather. Led by a president who refers to climate change as a ‘hoax,’ the administration is essentially saying that the vast majority of scientists around the world are wrong and that a hotter planet is not the menace that decades of research shows it to be.” 

What shall King Trump do when his ankles are washed in the rising tides of Mar-a-Lago? Or when extremely humid warmth overworks the compound’s a/c? Or if a Force 12 hurricane wipes it all away?

Justice: Runaway ICE. Mark Engler and Paul Engler write “The Key to Defeating Trump? Mass Non-Cooperation,” The Guardian, February 15, 2026: “The extraordinary level of grassroots solidarity and creative resistance in anti-ICE protests in Minnesota has given people a new appreciation for the power that mass non-cooperation can have in resisting the Trump administration’s drive toward authoritarianism. And it has created an awareness of why such action is clearly needed.”

Further proof is exemplified by J. David Goodman, Mary Beth Gahan, and Collie Holtermann reporting “Students Across the U.S. Are Protesting ICE. Texas Wants to Punish Their Schools,” The New York Times, February 15, 2026: “Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas has suggested that state funding could be stripped from school districts and that students who are disorderly during protests should be arrested. The Texas Education Agency has warned that districts found to have facilitated walkouts could be taken over by the state.” 

And what about Civics 101? Abbott has his own particular rising tide about which to worry. 

High school students in Hutto, Texas, walking out of class to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Image by Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman, via AP.

Washing Away the Epstein Files? Ryan J. Reilly recounts, “Pam Bondi Hearing Devolves into Shouting Matches with Democrats over Epstein and DOJ Prosecutions,” NBC News, February 11, 2026: “Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., asked the [abused] women to stand up before she challenged Bondi to turn to them and apologize for the Justice Department’s failure to fully redact their names when the files were made public. Bondi declined and later asked Democrats whether they ‘apologized to President Trump, all of you who participated in those impeachment hearings against Donald Trump? You all should be apologizing to Trump for their involvement in past impeachment efforts.’ ”

Reilly continued, “Bondi repeatedly accused Democrats of ‘theatrics’ and said she would not ‘get in the gutter with these people,’ though she repeatedly lobbed personal attacks at Democratic lawmakers. She called Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the committee, a ‘washed-up lawyer’ and accused Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia, who has been in Congress for two decade of lacking experience.”

I recall the proverb: “The wheels of justice grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine.” That is, while legal processes or divine retribution may take a long time, they eventually produce a thorough and just outcome.

Image from Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, State of Georgia. 

How long will Teflon Don and his mob continue to evade the judicial and scientific tides? ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2026