George Washington could have chosen to become king. Instead, he became the first president, changing the course of human history. Image generated by AI.

In His final temptation of Jesus, Satan offered to make Him king over all the kingdoms of the world. As Matthew 4:8–10 records:

“Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world… And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.”

But Jesus refused. He rejected Satan and rejected an earthly kingship, choosing instead the path to the Cross, through which He revealed His kingship over all creation. For most human beings, it would be almost impossible to reject absolute power and unlimited wealth.

George Washington could have been king, but he chose to become president, making America the first country in history where citizens voted for their head of state. There were various ancient forms of democracy throughout history, but the United States was the first constitutional republic in which the people could elect their head of state indirectly through elected representatives. After eight years, he relinquished power, although many urged Washington to remain in office.

Washington’s rejection of absolute power in order to support the birth of a new nation where, as the Declaration of Independence states, “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” established the democratic foundation that would become the basis for many other independence movements over the coming centuries.

Today, of the 195 countries recognized by the UN, only five direct monarchies exist: Saudi Arabia, Oman, Brunei, Eswatini, and Qatar, while five countries remain communist: China, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba, and North Korea. Among the remaining more than 180 countries, although many have flawed democracies, the American Revolution laid the foundation for a system in which the citizens of most countries vote for their leaders.

Young Washington (2026), the new film from Angel Studios, is an incredibly well-made, entertaining, and patriotic film that recounts the story of how a young Virginian with no status in the British establishment, raised by a widowed mother with very little money, went on to become George Washington, the commander of the U.S. forces during the American Revolution and then the first president of the United States.

In the film, young Washington’s education is attributed to his older brother, Lawrence, who was educated in Britain at Appleby Grammar School and received a royal commission, signed by King George II, as senior Captain in the Virginia companies raised for the War of Jenkins’ Ear. Lawrence went on to serve under Admiral Edward Vernon in the Cartagena campaign before rising to Major, and it was this English education and military service that shaped young George’s early exposure to soldiering.

One of the skills Lawrence teaches his brother is chess. The film depicts George as asking his brother what role the colonists play in the political dynamics of the era, and Lawrence says that they are pawns. He then demonstrates that even a pawn can kill a king. There is no evidence that Lawrence actually taught this lesson to the young George, but it works as an excellent plot device and an allegorical prediction of the coming War of Independence.

Most biographies of Washington focus on the American Revolution itself, while this film instead examines his development as a young leader, using his story to illustrate the emerging conflict between the old British Empire and a new American identity. Washington represents a new kind of American: a man of European descent born in the colonies who, for perhaps the first time, felt a stronger allegiance to his home colony, in this case Virginia, than to Britain itself. These first Americans were often rougher and less formally educated than their British counterparts, but they possessed the practical skills and resilience needed not only to survive in the New World but ultimately to govern it.

In the film, Lawrence gives George a stack of classics to read, among them Seneca, Plutarch, and the story of Cincinnatus, a historical figure to whom historians often compare Washington.

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was a Roman patrician, born around 519 BC, who served as suffect consul in 460 BC before being summoned from his farm to serve as dictator in 458 BC. He defeated Rome’s enemies within days and relinquished his near-absolute power just 15 or 16 days into a six-month term, though he had no obligation to do so.

The comparison to Washington was made explicit by Lord Byron in his 1814 poem “Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte,” written to condemn Napoleon for clinging to power after his abdication. Byron named Washington “the Cincinnatus of the West,” the one man whose voluntary renunciation of power stood as a rebuke to Napoleon’s refusal to do the same.

In 1782, Colonel Lewis Nicola proposed that Washington take the title of king. Washington rejected the suggestion outright, calling the idea abhorrent. After the surrender at Yorktown in October 1781, the war did not end immediately. Britain still held Charleston, Savannah, and New York City, and two more years passed before the Treaty of Paris formally ended the conflict in September 1783.

Washington had planned his next move since the war’s outset, having declined a salary from the moment he took command of the Continental Army. On December 23, 1783, he arrived in Annapolis for a special session of Congress, his horse waiting to carry him home to Mount Vernon by Christmas Eve. Addressing Congress, he said he was retiring “from the great theater of Action” and offered his commission, taking “leave of all the employments of public life.”

As the story is told, the American painter Benjamin West once informed King George III that Washington intended to return to his farm after the war. The King reportedly replied that if he did so, he would be “the greatest man in the world.”

In 1796, after two terms as president, Washington declined to seek a third term, stepping down from the nation’s highest office at the height of his popularity and returning to Mount Vernon.

Angel Studios released the film during the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States, under the Trump administration, which has been one of the most patriotic and Christian administrations in modern American history. The administration held large-scale events for the 250th birthday of the United States Army, as well as a rededication of the nation to Christ.

Under Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, the U.S. military has emphasized a return to its warrior ethos while raising standards and focusing on warfighting readiness. Recruitment has exceeded expectations. Despite how the mainstream media portrays the administration, supporters argue that America’s global power is exemplified by the snatching of Venezuelan President Maduro and the elimination of Ayatollah Khamenei.

Trump has also pressured NATO members to increase their defense spending and demonstrated that China was unwilling to intervene militarily on behalf of either Russia or Iran, two of its closest allies. He got Panama to wrest control of the canal away from China, supported the UAE in leaving OPEC, established the U.S. as controlling most of Venezuela’s and Iraq’s oil exports, and blockaded the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. is now a net oil exporter and one of the top producers in the world. Through a combination of military, economic, and policy actions, President Trump has positioned the U.S. to control or influence most of the world’s oil supply.

After President Trump won reelection in 2024, Sylvester Stallone called him the second George Washington. “When George Washington defended his country, he had no idea that he was going to change the world. Without him, you couldn’t imagine what the world would look like. Guess what? We got the second George Washington.”

Sadly, the reason behind much of the work of Angel Studios is that many Americans do not value the freedoms and the high standard of living that the system established by Washington and the Founding Fathers has afforded us. Recently, New York saw three Democrat socialist candidates win primaries, while the LGBTQ, socialist, and Islamist alliance is holding parades and gaining momentum across the U.S.

Hopefully, the film Young Washington will remind older Americans of the sacrifice and the values of masculinity, toughness, dedication to duty, and selflessness that it took to create the country they are now working to undo.

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