Here’s an Independence Day quiz: The Declaration of Independence lists 27 “injuries and usurpations” by King George III, “all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny.” How many of those same abuses, injuries and usurpations are we now suffering under the current administration?
The answer: At least eleven. In the order in which they appear in the Declaration:
1. Refusal to assent to laws “most wholesome and necessary for the public good.”
Look no further than last week, when the President, in an attempt to consolidate his power, withheld his assent to bipartisan legislation to meet one of the public’s highest priorities, housing. One of many examples of prioritizing his personal aspirations above the public good.
2. “Refus[ing] to pass other Laws” unless people relinquish their voting rights, “inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.”
The President has insisted that no laws can be passed until and unless Congress passes the “Save America Act,” which provides for the mass removal of voters from the voter rolls.
3. Exposing the state to all sorts of dangers by attempting to “annihilat[e]” the legislative power.
He has bypassed Congress with executive orders and undermined Congress’s power of the purse, coming close to achieving his goal of neutering the legislature.
4. “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 . . .”
This one requires no elaboration.
5. “He has obstructed the Administration of Justice . . .”
Again, self-evident, starting with the conversion of the Department of Justice from an independent non-political agency whose goal is “blind justice,” to a wholly political arm of MAGA dedicated to obtaining retribution against the President’s opponents and consolidating Presidential power.
6. “He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices . . .”
No other President has sat scowling in the first row of the Supreme Court, or has overtly and repeatedly intimidated and coerced our supposedly independent judiciary. He scoffed at the idea that judges should be “honest” or “independent,” and instead suggested that they should “be loyal to the person that [sic] appointed them."
7. “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people . . .”
Two words: DOGE and ICE.
8. “He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.”
Exactly: Los Angeles (June 2025), Washington (2025-2026), Chicago (October 2025), Portland (fall 2025) . . .
9. “For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world.”
One word: tariffs.
10. “For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences.”
More than 19,000 people have been transported to at least 23 countries (not their countries of origin), including El Salvador, Ghana, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), Rwanda and more.
11. “For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments.”
Many of our most valuable laws, institutions and norms are again under attack, and our form of government already has been fundamentally altered: Constitutional checks and balances have been severely eroded with the neutering of Congress, usurpation of the power of the purse, and holding that the President is now above the law while in office; legal protection of federal agencies from overt politicization has been abolished; independence of the Fed (fundamental to American prosperity) has been attacked; the President has repeatedly failed to recognize legal constraints on executive action without consequence; and he has blatantly disregarded virtually all ethical standards and rules regarding personal emoluments and conflicts of interest, again without consequence. In only 18 months our form of Government has been “altered fundamentally.”
When the same circumstances were faced by the founding fathers 250 years ago, their conclusion was unanimous: “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.”