The Trump administration’s expansion of executive power has spurred many “No Kings” rallies. The White House walls are adorned in gilded ornaments that look like they were ordered from Alibaba. Everyone is rightfully fussing over President Trump’s increasingly authoritarian and tacky grip over the federal government. Lost in all this concern over “King Trump,” however, has been a declaration of monarchy much closer to home: everyone bow down to Emperor Joe DoVinh!
On Aug. 31, 2025, Garden Grove Mayor Pro Tem DoVinh declared the founding of a new “borderless” Vietnamese constitutional monarchy – the kingdom of Viet Dai. This declaration was made via a press release on Garden Grove city letterhead (although he’s emphasized, probably to avoid the city attorney’s ire, that it’s only his personal statement), and apparently it was circulated only or primarily to Vietnamese language media.
Just a week after Joe’s declaration was sent to the media, he gave a speech at an assembly (“National Congress”) of anti-communist South Vietnamese nationalists that was held at Delta Hotels Anaheim Garden Grove, attending the event along with Garden Grove USD Trustee Lan Quoc Nguyen, California State Assemblymember Tri Ta, Westminster City Mayor Chi Charlie Nguyen, Westminster City Councilmember Amy Phan West, and who knows however many other right-wing South Vietnamese nationalists.
Interestingly, none of these other Vietnamese elected officials in these South Vietnamese nationalist circles have, at least to my knowledge, said anything publicly whatsoever about Joe’s declaration despite it being plastered all over several Vietnamese language YouTube channels.
It’s been hard to find the original document that Joe DoVinh sent out on August 31, but many Vietnamese language media YouTube channels, including TD Media, have shared it on screen in some videos about the subject.
I’ve done my best to translate the text of his press release (statement?), which I’ve pasted below:
80 Years of Vietnam’s Independence
To my dear fellow countrymen
Declaration of Founding of the Kingdom of Viet Dai
- Whereas after 80 years of Independence, Vietnam has undergone many revolutions and wars with great sacrifices made by the People to secure the right of Sovereignty for the Vietnamese Nation, and no individual, group, party, or movement can insolently or perversely claim credit for this and deny the contributions of the entire Vietnamese people and country;
- Whereas the abdication of the former Emperor Bao Dai and the failure of transitional regimes does not mean that Vietnam can no longer have a King or cannot have a Constitutional Monarchy like neighboring countries or other political entities with party rule or dictatorships… There are still many free and democratic government institutions that will succeed to bring prosperity based on the four pillars of Self-Empowerment, Self-Reliance, Self-Control, and Freedom;
- Whereas the war against internal enemies (communism) and external enemies (foreign invaders) continues every hour and every day in every heart and building of the Vietnamese people and has spread to Free Vietnamese Communities around the world;
Be it resolved that we declare today the founding of the Kingdom of Viet Dai (without borders): a Constitutional Monarchy, with the line of succession of King Van Hue, to lead the fight for a Free and Democratic country, where all people are enthroned in the Great Vietnamese Family to bring about a new Golden Age. May we achieve Complete Victory!
Sincerely SIGNED, August 31, 2025. PRESS RELEASE.
Joe Do-Vinh, JD, Doctor of Law, Mayor Pro Tem of the City of Garden Grove,
representing the largest Vietnamese Community outside of Vietnam
https://ggcity.org/city-council/joe-dovinh
I’m not really sure why this press release is formatted like a resolution, as if Joe DoVinh has the power to approve a municipal resolution on his own, although I suppose that would be rather fitting for a man who also stated on a radio show that he has “the right” to “fire” the Garden Grove Chief of Police – but that’s a story for another day (or blog post).
Since the release of his August 31 declaration, Joe DoVinh has said on a number of Vietnamese talk shows that he views himself as a sort of interim “king” or “emperor” until one of the surviving members of the Vietnamese royal dynastic lineages – some live in Southern California, for instance – steps in to take their “rightful” place on the throne. He further argues that just because Emperor Bao Dai abdicated the throne after the August Revolution of 1945, it doesn’t mean that Vietnam can no longer have a monarchical system of government. However, Joe doesn’t appear to want to do more than make this grand declaration, as he also says that it will be up to “the people” and “the will of the heavens” to decide if the Vietnamese people will ultimately one day have a state governed by a constitutional monarchy.
DoVinh claims he has this responsibility in part because he was elected to represent Garden Grove, which is the “real” “capital” of the anti-communist Vietnamese community of refugees – as opposed to to Westminster, which he repeatedly insists couldn’t possibly be the “real” “capital” of the anti-communist Vietnamese diaspora.
(It’s unclear why Joe is so obsessed with making Garden Grove out to be bigger and better than Westminster, but he’s so focused on proving how much better and more “authentic” Garden Grove is of a Vietnamese city than Westminster that he also frequently misstates the respective populations of the two cities. According to Joe, depending on when you ask him, Garden Grove is three to four times larger than Westminster and has a population of 300,000 to 400,000 residents. The actual population of Garden Grove, per the U.S. Census Bureau, is about 172,000. Westminster’s population is about 90,000. Garden Grove is certainly larger, but not by as much as Joe loves to boast, at least once a month.)
It seems Garden Grove’s Mayor Pro Tem is much more interested in styling himself as a monarch, advocating for regime change in Vietnam, and using his City platform to highlight the battle against “communism” than he is actually advancing the housing policy priorities he once espoused, taking care of our public parks, supporting residents affected by increased immigration enforcement, or otherwise focusing on his duties as an elected Garden Grove Councilman.
Perhaps it’s too much to ask from a man who has been weirdly cagey for a public figure and responds to candidate questionnaires by typing in ALL CAPS, but hey – can’t we at least dream of competent and NORMAL elected officials in Little Saigon?
Hey, we remember this DoVinh cat, we did the classic interview with him back in 2010. It was all kinds of unintentionally hilarious. I remember sitting with him at the Starbucks at Chapman and Euclid.
https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2010/04/meet-joe-dovinh-phus-democratic-challenger/
In 2010. That’s when he was running in the Democratic primary against our friend Phu Nguyen, who was fixing to run against Allan Mansoor to take Van Tran’s place. We suspected DoVinh of being a fake Democrat in the race to help Van Tran & Mansoor. True or not, there is a lot of epic silliness in this interview.
Around this time as well, he married Dina Nguyen which was real tabloid. They are still together though.
I read one of Dau’s links (to a recent Register story I hadn’t seen) – DoVinh sure is a REAL piece of work, especially when talking to Viet media! He sounds not only like Trump, but like OUR old Mayor, Harry Sidhu, when he talks about “MY police.”
https://www.ocregister.com/2025/09/25/stop-acting-powerless-garden-grove-officials-grilled-about-immigration-response/
“In a translated July 4 interview with Vietstar Media, DoVinh reportedly told the host, “Right in my city, yesterday, ICE came to take action and I directed our police to cooperate, cooperate. I also have texts that I instructed the City Council general manager and our police chief to cooperate, then ICE came to a car wash on Chapman Street, which is my district, the Fourth District, and I have full authority to handle it.”
“If my police are insolent, I will fire the police chief. I will say it clearly, publicly on this show,” he reportedly said, according to translations provided by a staff member of the Harbor Institute for Immigrant and Economic Justice. “If the police chief forces non-cooperation and turns Garden Grove into a sanctuary city, I will fire the police chief. I have the right.”
Isn’t there some white Republican female Mayor in that town, called KLOPFENSTEIN? Who knew the Pro-Tem was invested with such awesome powers? And no wonder the anti-ICE folks (most of us) don’t like him!