While Donald Trump screams and shakes his head at New York City voters for overwhelmingly electing Zohran Mamdani as Mayor, the person the nation’s founders were really worried about is Donald Trump.
July 4, 2026 is the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration starts with general principles about human rights and lists grievances against the British King. As Americans prepare for the semi-quincentennial of this country they should read the Declaration in its entirety because the founders made important statements about human rights and why we should oppose kings, King George III and King Donald I. Trump is guilty of many of the crimes that King George and the British Parliament committed against the thirteen colonies that became the United States of America,
The Declaration opens with the statement “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” While many of the founders were slaveholders or slave traders and they excluded women from the community ensured fundamental rights the statement still reverberates as a promise made to future generations. Trump and the Republican Party want to deny the unalienable rights of many people who live in the United States and have tried to systematically ensure minority rule by obstructing voting and redistricting Congressional seats to stack the House of Representatives in their favor.
The Declaration includes a list of grievances against King Goerge which can also stand as grievances against king-like Donald Trump.
“He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance.” Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson recessed the House of Representatives to prevent a compromise solution to the government shut-down that would ensure funding for medical care and would make public the Epstein files.
“He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people.” Tax breaks for the wealthy were included in the budget but not health care and education funding.
“He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.” Trump used the closing of the legislative branch to reroute funds to favored projects, punish “blue” states and cities, and to make in-term Justice Department appointments of syncopates with limited qualifications for the positions..
“He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners.” Trump and the Republican Party blocked all immigration reform leaving thousands of people brought to the United States as children in limbo.
“He has obstructed the Administration of Justice.” Trump issues executive orders that blatantly violate the law and the Constitution and he has launched criminal proceedings against his political foes.
“He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone.” Trump and the Republicans have stacked the courts, including the Supreme Court, with judges who owe loyalty to them and not the law or the Constitution.
“He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.”Federal troops and mobilized National Guard units have occupied Portland, Oregon, Los Angeles, and Chicago despite the opposition of local officials.
“He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.” ICE, federal troops, and the National Guard are used to police communities in violation of federal law.
“He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us . . . Protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States.” After inciting the January 6, 2021 insurrectionists to storm the Capitol Building where they vandalized the legislative branch or government and were responsible for the murder of DC police, Trump proclaimed them to be patriots and granted them pardons.
“Cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.” Trump tariffs imposed without Congressional assent are bankrupting farmers and raising prices for everyone.
“He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution . . . For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury . . . For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences.” People arrested in the United States are denied due process and then shipped to prison in countries that deny fundamental human rights.
“Altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments.” All of the above.
Alan Singer, Director, Secondary Education Social Studies
Teaching Learning Technology
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“Nations reel and stagger on their way; they make hideous mistakes; they commit frightful wrongs; they do great and beautiful things. And shall we not best guide humanity by telling the truth about all this, so far as the truth is ascertainable?” W.E.B. DuBois, Black Reconstruction in America (1935)