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What would the "Founding Fathers" think of Trump? Let's let the Declaration of Independence speak. [1]
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Date: 2025-04-25
The Declaration of Independence, a foundational document of the United States, includes a list of 26 specific grievances against King George. I thought it would be interesting and instructive to see what the Declaration would say about Trump, so here goes (numbering not in the original):
1. He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
Trump repeatedly ignores or subverts court orders.
2. He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
Trump uses threats and intimidation to prevent Republican Senators and Representatives to vote the sentiments of their constituents.
3. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
Trump, and Republicans in general, are attempting to remove the vote from large portions of the population or make it difficult for those populations to vote.
4. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
OK, on this one Trump gets a pass.
5. He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
… this one too, but I bet he’d dissolve the Legislative Branch if he thought he could get away with it.
6. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
… also this one, although the incompetence of his cabinet picks have left the US exposed to such dangers and convulsions.
7. He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
Guilty, guilty, guilty – and not just of obstructing, but of actively reducing population and migration.
8. He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
Trump has repeatedly attacked the independence of the Judiciary.
9. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
Among the attacks on the Judiciary, Trump has called for the removal of judges who rule against him.
10. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
DOGE, anyone?
11. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
This could almost describe ICE; and don’t forget his approval of – and calls to – independent, violent, paramilitary/militia organizations.
12. He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
One of the reasons he chose Hegseth for Secretary of Defense.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
13. For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
So far, innocent of this.
14. For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
Not just this, he out-and-out pardoned the Jan 6 insurrectionists.
15. For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
Trump’s tariff tomfoolery ...
16. For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
… and who actually pays for those tariffs?
17. For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
Near-daily ICE renditions without due process.
18. For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
Rendition to El Salvadoran prisons on unproven grounds (and against US law), where there isn’t even a show of a trial.
19. For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
Just how would Greenland or Panama be governed if Trump had his way?
20. For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
Not formally, but this is the effect of ignoring Judicial orders, and of DOGE’s destruction of government Departments.
21. For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
Hasn’t gotten to this point yet, thank goodness.
22. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
How many times has Trump hinted he would like to see violence directed toward those who oppose him? And how many times has he threatened, or acted, to withhold disaster assistance (a form of protection) from states he doesn’t like?
23. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
OK, it hasn’t gotten to this yet either, though his mishandling of COVID sure destroyed a lot of lives. And climate change is causing more fires, drought, and violent storms: burning our towns and forests, damaging our coasts, and interfering with agriculture.
24. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
We’re also spared foreign mercenaries, but only because he believes he has home-grown militia equivalents.
UPDATE: as squirrelyone points out:
Our hired hitman Elon was brought in just to gut and destroy the agencies our elected representatives had already funded, not only breaking trust with us, but with partners and allies around the world left hanging high and dry because we abruptly and faithlessly chose to stop keeping our agreements.
So regarding #24, we may not have an army of foreign mercenaries, but we’ve got an army headed by one, and as the attacks on our healthcare and retirement, not to mention the VA, continue, we’ve definitely got the “ works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy.”
25. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
No press-ganging into those militias, so he gets a pass here.
26. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
He sure has encouraged domestic insurrection. The anti-Native American sentiment is a shameful blot on the past and present that we still need to address, but note how well it describes the way the current Administration views immigrants.
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That’s the list. The next paragraph states the conclusion, which is spot-on for the present as well:
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
[END]
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