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!
Wild. First time I’m hearing about this and will be asking my relatives what they think.
You have relatives in the area?
Yeah I figure it’s the first time most of our readers hear about it.
ALL viet politicians in lil Saigon do this on viet media in lil Saigon. Radio tv print and pixels. They never do it in English because they would get slapped down. It the older generation of refugees from the fall of Saigon still eat this stuff up.
Throwback Thursday and eccentrics in little Saigon. Talmon was my crim pro law professor. Sharp as a whip!
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-aug-10-me-64390-story.html
Joe has always been an eccentric dude.
The translation is incomplete . The most important translation is “Nghia Vuong”. Vuong by itself means sovereign. Nghia is the adjective idealistic/ defined meaning/in name only. Joe is a linguist by profession. He chose his words carefully in this flyer. It’s the writer that chose to leave the translation for the word “Nghia” and chose to “Hail” him. lol.
Unless there’s something missing from the various biographies out there, Joe is definitely not a linguist — he’s an interpreter. I take your point that the attempted translation of the document text could be more proximate or literary. I’m admittedly not a professional, and this is a blog post. When people say “Vương” in usual speech, they mean “King,” and the document is already a declaration, so specifying that he’s not “actually” declaring himself a king doesn’t really make much of a difference since I think we can all assume he doesn’t mean it 110% literally. I also did write that, as you’re highlighting, Joe himself has said the document he put out is a declaration of intent rather than him wanting to necessarily force people to do anything in particular.
Still, the fact that Joe isn’t out here demanding people swear fealty to him doesn’t take away from what I think are the main takeaways from the overall situation: his self-important, attention-seeking behavior (the existence of the declaration itself, plus appearing in various shows/videos to discuss his declaration) and his obsession with a certain vision of grandeur and strength for the Vietnamese people (the way he talks about “the Vietnamese people,” including how much he mentions Garden Grove vs. Westminster, really makes this clear).
Interesting. Why did this article writer use a pen name instead of his real Vietnamese name? Maybe the writer is not Vietnamese? That is why I always appreciate Vern Nelson for being candor and transparent.
That’d be cool! I’d love to get to know a non-Vietnamese person who’s interested in these topics or who has the historical and political knowledge to understand some of the various potential lineages of this pen name.
I’m also not the only contributor to this blog with a pen name.
Pen names are fine if you’re protecting yourself from attack for your expressing non-toxic thoughts. They are often a problem when one uses them to express toxic thoughts. such as threats and lesser attacks.
Yes, of course. I think that anyone who knows about the history and dynamics of political discussion in OC’s Little Saigon probably understands why someone might want to use a pen name to protect themselves from some pretty serious threats, even if they’re not writing about anything that dicey.
Same with the vengeful Republican political culture in South OC which is why our writer (one of ’em) from down there still calls himself “South OC Paine.”
We are living in United States with freedom of speech, guaranteed to own people. You can claim to be the king the lord… as long as one proves that he/she can bring happiness to many people through speech, action or thinking . Just wait and see if Mr. Do Vinh will do something good for us. Otherwise it’s your right to proclaim the king / queen of yourself and your family.
He definitely has the right to say whatever he wants, and so does everyone else 🙂
GG Mayor Pro Tem JOE DOVINH PRESS RELEASEOn the day after “No Kings”Day – October 18, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 10/19/2025
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
As “No Kings” Day October 18, 2025 come to pass but may continue in other forms into the future, we would like to take this opportunity to summarize our opinions on these matters as follows:
As a free and democratic people who are responsible for the creation and preservation of our chosen form of government, we continue to exert our rights as defined and protected under the Constitution of the United States in ways that best suits our interests and aspirations at any time;
However, this does not mean that the seven million or so who participated in the “No Kings” protests represent the entirety of 340 million Americans nor can they speak for the 8.15 billion people on Planet Earth. The Peoples of the World are just as Free to chose their own government whether it is a Democratic Republic or Constitutional Monarchy or anything and all in-betweens based on their own unique cultural, historical, religious and political identities and inclinations…
Right here at home in Garden Grove, we have seen the politicization of many Trumpian policies particularly immigration issues related to law enforcement at the local, state and federal levels. While we strongly support law enforcement, we also call for the Equal Protection of all immigrants, documented or not– this is basic human rights that need to be respected in a civil society like US.
In this spirit we have called for our Police Department to cooperate with our City Council to assure that our population is fairly served and protected to which our Council collectively does have a vote of confidence to install and or to remove a Police Chief. This should come at no surprise to anyone. Fortunately, we have a compassionate Police Chief and a capable Police Department that serves us very well and doesn’t get baited into commenting on political opinions that is not their purview. We seek to unite our diverse communities in peace, harmony and mutual support. We resist anger, fear-mongering, divisiveness, provocation by way of misrepresentation, bias and distortion. ### .
Respectfully,{Digitally Signed}
Joe DoVinh, JD, Council Member District 4, City of Garden Grove
Gee, your Excellency, that is a shitty statement, and you didn’t need to send us four copies of it either.
First, “WE?” This whole thing is written in what I assume is the “royal first person plural.” But of course you know that, you are “a linguist by profession” LOL. But still, who are you speaking for, just yourself, the Mayor Pro Tem? I thought there was a mayor, name of Klopfenstein. What does she think of your rogue statements, and what does the rest of the Council think?
Your “7 million No Kings protesters don’t speak for the rest of us” seems to suggest that you disagree with them, on something important at least. It’s hard to tell what that is though as your prose gets wishy-washy. There’s been “politicization of Trumpian policies,” what the hell does that mean. How can arguing for or against a President’s policies not be “political,” and how can it not be one of the most important things we can all do?
I’d understood that you’d told (as though you were Emperor of Garden Grove) your police force to “cooperate with ICE.” That’s a real problem, does a majority of your colleagues on Council agree with defying the California Values Act? And yet in your final paragraphs here you purport to call for the “equal protection of all immigrants, documented or not.” So have you changed your mind about ICE, which regularly flouts law, constitution and basic decency trying to get their quota of immigrants and helping Trump shit on all the people all the time?
And can you point out the “anger, fear-mongering, divisiveness, provocation, misrepresentation, bias and distortion” that you “resist?” That seems to be your main point here, can you be more specific? Your Excellency?
PS. This IP address is the same as the two comments from “Vinh” above. I THOUGHT that “Vinh” sounded like Joe!
Funny how “Vinh” talks about Joe in the third person though.
Great Teri Sforza piece on the Register linking to this one:
https://www.ocregister.com/2025/10/22/on-emperors-kingdoms-communism-and-little-saigon/
In BREAKING NEWS, the Mayor Pro Tem of Garden Grove and Emperor of Vietnam had his tires slashed and now no longer trusts the police, OR ICE, or anyone in uniform. “Report this, Orange Juice Blog!” Joe Dovinh cries out, and so we do.