For many, monarchy offers up an alternative to other radical political factions. “I had a [real] disdain for liberalism and democracy in general,” an absolute monarchist from Germany told me on Reddit. “At first I actually identified with [Nazism] given my family’s history (cringe, I know) then I ditched that and was looking for something that really suited me and absolutism did just that, which led to monarchism by reading many works from respected authors.”

For an American monarchist like Sean, his preferred system of government “is some manner of elective monarchy modeled to a degree after what you saw in the Holy Roman Empire”, he told me. “The individual governor of each of the 50 states could vote amongst themselves on a new monarch in the event of an emperor stepping down … One of the reasons that I, and many others, favor monarchy, has to do with the benefits that a single individual can have when it comes to matters of foreign policy, international relations, international trade, et cetera.”

Others were drawn to monarchy more explicitly because of Trump. One self-identified American semi-constitutionalist explained: “I always had some monarchist sympathies, but I went full turncoat when I saw how moronically people were treating politics after 2016 and realized that our current system was breeding a bunch of nutjobs. After that I became convinced that a monarch or something is needed to keep politicians and the like in check.”