The Founding Fathers Could Have Written the Declaration of Independence about Trump: Part One

How Trump's Approach to Law Resembles King George III's

John Trunchbull’s famous portrait of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

During the 2024 election, many Democrats and even some Republicans called Donald Trump a “Threat to Democracy.” A small majority of voters ignored these voices. Now, legal scholars have shortened Trump’s nickname to “Constitutional Crisis.” Trump believes that anything unfair to him means the nullification of all rules, including the Constitution’s. To him, the United States government should be a machine that does whatever he wants, and he insists the founding fathers intended to create such a government.

He can say evoke the founding fathers because George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and all the other signers of the Declaration of Independence are dead. They cannot argue or clarify their positions, but serve as figureheads of ideals, even ones antithetical to their own.

However, the Declaration of Independence, the American colonists’ letter of separation from Britain, laid out the behaviors Americans should never tolerate. Others have pointed out how most of these abuses describe Donald Trump’s actions. Perhaps that is why he wants to move the Declaration of Independence into his office.

Part one of this series shall discuss some of how Trump has treated America’s laws in both his previous presidency and this current one.

“He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.”

Donald Trump does not think the law applies to him. Even before his presidency, he refused to honor business contracts. His assertion that a president is above the law continues into this new term with comments from Trump, Vance, and Musk discussing how they should not have to listen to the judges keeping him in line. The limitation of a president’s power is essential to a healthy democracy, as are free and fair elections in ensuring that no tyrant has lifelong control over the country. But Trump only likes elections when he wins them.

“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.”

During Joe Biden’s presidency, Trump kept a stranglehold on the Republican party. His influence caused Republicans to blow up a bipartisan immigration bill. Naturally, he did so because he wished to use immigration as a major part of his platform in the 2024 election. Even when he was not president, his own party chose to tank a bill than disappoint him.

“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.”

While Trump has yet to withdraw officially a state’s right to representatives, he has used political power and money to strong-arm states that did not overwhelmingly vote for him. Trump looked up how many votes he got in certain counties before giving aid to California during a series of wildfires in 2018. In his second term, Trump has also levied serious threats against many sanctuary cities for immigrants as well. Overall, Trump views politics as bargaining ploys. He rewards those who favor him (often with a job under his thumb), and he punishes those who do not kiss his feet.

“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.”

After Trump won his elections in 2016 and 2024, he called players in his new administration to either Trump Tower or Mar-a-Lago, where he was free to cajole them in whatever way he wanted. In 2024, critics noted certain billionaires’ and celebrities’ trips to Mar-a-Lago felt like apology tours to a man with executive power behind his quest for retribution. While Trump signs executive orders in the White House, he seems to wheel and deal primarily from Mar-a-Lago, offering to meet one-on-one with anyone with five million dollars or in group settings for anyone with one million. On Trump’s personal properties, he is free to use whatever methods of persuasion he finds appropriate to get what he wants.

“He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.”

Donald Trump caused the 2018-2019 Government Shutdown when Congress would not allocate five billion taxpayer dollars to a wall on the border of the U.S. and Mexico. The shutdown lasted 35 days, the longest shutdown in U.S. history. Trump refused to sign any bill that did not include the funding for the wall, and Senator Mitch McConnell aided him in blocking other funding bills. The federal government sent many workers home without pay, and some had to show up to work without pay. The shutdown ultimately wasted eleven billion taxpayer dollars. Trump eventually got the funding by declaring a national emergency, making the entire exercise a pointless waste of time that hurt many people, including federal workers and Indigenous tribes.

“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 [sic] exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.”

Despite the previously mentioned shutdown, Trump has a better track record of dissolving legislative houses than King George III. However, Trump came close to dissolving the government itself. On January 6^th, 2021, Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol to overturn the 2020 election, the first attack of such a nature since the War of 1812. Since then, Trump loves to hint at a third term in office, a violation of the 22^nd Amendment. Why would he give up the power to enrich himself?

“He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.”

Trump and Musk’s frantic slashing of programs in Washington have cut down necessary programs for Americans. Congress appropriated the funds to each of these programs and services, and many critics and some judges have noted it is not within the executive branch’s power to cut them. None of that deterred the White House, as Marco Rubio completely shuttered USAID, a movement that will starve children across the globe, ensure deadly diseases rise in other countries, and remove supports for families in unstable countries. In addition, Trump’s appointees as Director of the FBI, U.S. Attorney General, and his “border czar,” Kash Patel, Pam Bondi, and Tom Homan, respectively, have promised to use their offices to enact retribution against Trump’s political enemies. How can a president who uses his power against those who keep in line claim to stand for justice?

“He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.”

The Supreme Court owes their conservative dominance to Trump, and while he seems satisfied with their “presidential immunity” ruling in his favor despite their occasional breaking with his agenda, Elon Musk has called for the impeachment of judges who have blocked his and Trump’s agenda. Besides the judiciary branch, Trump continues to strangle the Republican party into submission with threats of “primaries,” while some Republicans also fear political violence from Trump’s supporters. Though Trump has yet to enact legislation against these officials regarding their salaries, he has attacked their tenure of office many times.

“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass [sic] our people, and eat out their substance.”

The most egregious of the new offices Trump has included in the federal government remains Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, though he has also formed an Anti-Christian bias task force. Organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union provide legal assistance for those Christians who have experienced discrimination because of their religion. While a government task force aimed at fighting discrimination based on religion is not a bad idea in theory, Trump seems to have left out other religions who have experienced more discrimination than Christianity. The Pew Research Center found in 2017 that 48% of Muslims had experienced prejudice based on their religion. Trump’s Christian task force only reinforces the extreme evangelical Christians that make up his base. As for DOGE’s role in harassing the people of the United States, Elon Musk’s clumsy warfare against the federal government from the inside will cause generational struggles for hundreds of thousands of Americans.

So far, Trump has met the checklist of authoritarians our founding fathers mentioned in the single most important document in the birth of the United States of America. Part Two will discuss other grievances, including some discussing law, foreign policy, and immigration.

If you are angry, if you are feeling hopeless, or if you are wondering how you can survive the next four years, join us. We are turning our anger into action, involving ourselves in our community, protecting those who need it, and encouraging progressive change in southeast Texas. Right now, Trump wants you to feel helpless. He wants you to feel discouraged. Every small action you can take to protect others in your community and protest against this administration is a step forward against this developing oligarchy.