Police in the United Kingdom have arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Prince Andrew and Duke of York, on suspicion of misconduct in public office — after the disclosure of emails between Mountbatten-Windsor and the late disgraced banker Jeffrey Epstein.We don’t know yet the specific charges. But we do know that the late Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein victim, accused Mountbatten-Windsor of raping her.We also know that Mountbatten-Windsor was the U.K.’s trade envoy between 2001 and 2011 and appears to have forwarded to Epstein confidential government reports from visits to Vietnam, Singapore, and China, including investment opportunities in gold and uranium in Afghanistan.Prime Minister Keir Starmer says, “No one is above the law.” The family of Virginia Giuffre says, “No one is above the law, not even royalty.” Britain’s chief prosecutor says, “No one is above the law.”All of which raises awkward questions about the people implicated on this side of the pond, including the person in the Oval Office who loves to be treated like a king, and who appears in the Epstein files 1,433 times (that is, in the files that have been released so far). Prince Andrew appears in them 1,821 times.America likes to believe we gave up kings almost 250 years ago and adopted a system in which “no one is above the law.”But Trump’s foreign policy has become a personal tool for him to channel money and status to himself and his closest associates. Since the 2024 election, the Trump family’s personal wealth has increased by at least $4 billion.As with the British royalty of the 16th century, it’s all personal with Trump — all about expanding his power and enlarging his and his family’s wealth. Proceeds from the sale of Venezuelan oil? “That money will be controlled by me,” he says. The gift of a plane from Qatar? “Mine.” Investments by Middle East kingdoms in his family’s crypto racket? “Perfectly fine.”Like the British royalty of yore, King Trump has arbitrary power. He raises Switzerland’s tariff from 30 to 39 percent because its former president Karin Keller-Sutter “just rubbed me the wrong way.” He imposes a 50 percent tariff on Brazil because Brazil refused to halt its prosecution of a Trump political ally, the former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was found guilty of plotting a coup. Vietnam fast-tracks approval of a $1.5 billion Trump family golf course at the same time it seeks to reduce its tariff rate.Trump claims that Greenland is “psychologically needed,” although the United States already has a military presence there and an open invitation to expand its bases. He muses about making Canada the “51st state.” These are throwbacks to the 16th-century age of empire.***Meanwhile, Trump has created a system of tribute and allegiance that would make Henry VIII jealous.Apple’s Tim Cook delivers a gold-based plaque and a donation to Trump’s planned ballroom. Swiss billionaires bring a gold bar and a Rolex desk clock to the Oval Office. Jeff Bezos backs a vapid movie of Melania and hands her a check for $28 million.Trump pardons Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire mogul who pled guilty to money-laundering violations in 2023, after which time Zhao’s Binance digital-coin trading platform becomes the engine of the Trump family’s crypto business, World Liberty Financial.Elon Musk’s humongous quarter-billion-dollar contribution to Trump’s 2024 campaign earns Musk a dukedom — a “department of government efficiency”— and the keys to the kingdom in the form of sensitive U.S. Treasury Department software systems used to manage federal payments.But when the Duke of DOGE starts becoming more visible than King Trump, the king banishes him and revokes his dukedom. When the banished Musk begins openly criticizing Trump, the king threatens to cut off Musk’s head in the form of cutting him and his SpaceX off from valuable government contracts. This puts an end to Musk’s impertinence.The new TikTok (on which Trump has more than 16 million followers) will continue operating in the United States — but now with the financial backing of Trump ally Larry Ellison’s Oracle, Trump’s allied Emirati investment firm MGX (which has already invested in the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company), and Silver Lake, teamed up with the private equity firm founded by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.Trump allows Nvidia to sell chips to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia and extends military guarantees to Qatar — all of which have invested in the Trump family empire. (Emirati-backed investors plowed $2 billion into World Liberty Financial.)Instead of national glory, Trump demands personal glory — to get the Nobel Peace Prize, to put his name on the Kennedy Center, Penn Station, and other major monuments and buildings.If his commands are not met, he punishes.