Every Act Which May Define a Tyrant

History repeats itself.

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.

Ten score and fifty years ago on July 4th, 1776, the thirteen newly united states of America declared their independence from the British Empire. Asserting the self-evident truth that all men are created equal, born with certain unalienable rights, these thirteen states invoked their right to alter or abolish their current government. This decision was not made lightly—”Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes”—but the Empire’s list of injuries and usurpations had grown too long for the colonies to bear. Two hundred and fifty years later the Trump administration is now repeating many of the same abuses as King George III.

Let facts be submitted to a candid world

Most of the Declaration of Independence is a list of twenty-seven complaints and accusations levied at the British Crown, “a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.”

By my count President Trump has hit at least twelve so far.

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

President Trump has repeatedly threatened to strip naturalized Americans of their citizenship. The Department of Justice recently began the largest denaturalization effort in US history, attempting to revoke the citizenship of seventeen Americans. Monthly naturalizations are at the lowest levels ever recorded by USCIS data. The President lowered the number of refugee admissions from 125,000 to 7,500 annually—except for white South Africans. He attempted to raise the fee for new H-1B visas to $100,000. USCIS has seemingly stopped approving green cards for any reason other than family and employment, totaling a 50% decline from 2024. He banned or restricted visitors from forty countries, potentially preventing the entry of one in five legal immigrants.  

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance

In March 2025 employees of the “DOGE” program illegally trespassed into the US Institute of Peace headquarters and summarily fired its staff, recruiting DC law enforcement to help them break into the building. A federal judge later declared these DOGE officers “illegitimately-installed leaders” who had no authority or basis for taking over the office. Similar stories played out across Washington DC in early 2025 as DOGE employees descended on federal agencies to illegally cancel programs, shutter offices, and fire staff. Much of substance was lost during this time of pillaging, including millions of Americans’ personal information and, catastrophically, USAID. The federal deficit continues to climb to record highs, worsened by severe staffing cuts at the IRS. 

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures … For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us

The nation’s capital has been under military occupation for 327 days. President Trump first mobilized the National Guard on August 11th, 2025, on the basis of a “crime emergency” despite DC’s violent crime rate having fallen to thirty year lows. Part of this order included seizing federal control over the city’s Metropolitan Police Department with the first ever invocation of Section 740 of the Home Rule Act. 80% of DC residents opposed the deployment, with 61% reporting that they feel less safe as a result. The President previously told military leaders they should consider U.S. cities to be a “training ground” and described the occupation as “a war from within.” In California the President illegally deployed the military onto the streets of Los Angeles in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act and has attempted similar deployments in cities like Chicago and Portland. The historical parallel is particularly relevant for DC’s occupation, as its lack of statehood plays a key role in Trump’s ability to exercise his power against the will of the people. District residents have long pointed out the irony of the nation’s capital city being subject to federal control without Congressional representation. DC’s license plates read “End Taxation Without Representation” for good reason.

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States

In January 2026 federal agents from ICE and Border Patrol were filmed murdering two American citizens in Minneapolis, Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Jonathan Ross, the agent identified as Renee Good’s killer, has not been arrested for his crimes or even fired from his job. As far as I know, neither have Jesus Ochoa or Raymundo Gutierrez, the men identified as Alex Pretti’s killers. Federal law enforcement prevented local Minneapolis police from accessing crime scene evidence and has refused to pursue any investigation into the killings. Federal agents have taken to intimidating those who criticize these killers, showing up to polling places to threaten legal action against a woman for advocating that Jonathan Ross be indicted. Prior to Good and Pretti’s murders, Ruben Ray Martinez was shot and killed by Homeland Security agent Jack Stevens in Texas. The Department of Homeland Security claimed Stevens fired in self defense after Martinez “intentionally ran over” the officer, despite bodycam footage clearly showing otherwise. There will be no trial, not even a mockery of one, for the federal agents who killed these Americans.

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent

On April 2nd 2025 President Trump unveiled his “Liberation Day” tariff agenda, the highest peacetime tax increase in American history. These taxes were levied on foreign trade with every country on Earth, including some countries that don’t exist. The Supreme Court has since declared most of these tariffs illegal, and ordered the administration to begin refunding American companies for the tens of billions that Customs illegally seized over the past year.

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

The President and his closest advisors have repeatedly advocated against the concept of due process and fair trials. Administration officials have made efforts to suspend habeas corpus. Over 280 men were detained and shipped overseas to the El Salvadoran prison CECOT, known for its cruel conditions and use of torture. According to the National Immigration Law Center none of these men were given any opportunity to defend themselves in court. The President enabled these detentions and removals with an illegitimate invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, claiming that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua was staging an invasion of the United States. During a meeting with the leader of El Salvador Trump expressed his desire to send American citizens to CECOT. 

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments

The DOGE-born ransacking of the federal government claimed many victims, but none more disastrous than the shuttering of USAID. With absolutely zero legal authority, Elon Musk and a small group of loyal followers recklessly dismantled a statutory agency responsible for saving tens of millions of lives. American employees were left stranded in foreign conflict zones and critical relief programs were unable to respond to natural disasters. Some operations managed to survive under the State Department and the legal entity known as “USAID” technically still exists on paper, but the actual agency and its staff are no more. If there ever was a “most valuable” agency in the United States government, it would most likely be USAID. For less than half a percent of the annual budget, USAID programs prevented approximately 90 million deaths over the past two decades.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us

The Trump administration routinely denies federal funding to Democratic states. Only 23% of disaster relief requests from states with a Democratic governor are approved, compared to 89% from states with a Republican governor. Motivated by their immigration crackdown in Minneapolis—the same crackdown that claimed the lives of Renee Good and Alex Pretti—the federal government has repeatedly halted Medicaid payments to Minnesota. The President regularly describes Democrats as “the enemy within” to military leadership. As mentioned before, he has illegally deployed the military on US soil against Democratic governors’ wishes. While threatening a similar deployment to the city of Chicago, President Trump depicted himself dropping napalm on the city’s skyline and posted, “Chicago about to find out why it's called the Department of WAR” to his personal social media account.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us

Following his loss in the 2020 election, President Trump orchestrated a massive election denial campaign that culminated in an attempt to submit fraudulent Electoral College votes and stage an insurrection at the Capitol building to pressure lawmakers into changing the results. Five people died during or immediately following the insurrection and 174 police officers were injured. Four more officers would die by suicide in the following months. 1,575 people were arrested for their crimes on January 6th, 1,030 of whom plead guilty.

President Trump pardoned all of these insurrectionists on his first day back in office. 

Since then dozens of these insurrectionists have been arrested on other charges, including several cases of child sex crimes. Enrique Tarrio, who received the longest January 6th sentence of 22 years, is now enjoying his free time cozying up to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

What, if not a revolution?

Luckily there are more options available to us than there were for America’s founding revolutionaries. We already live in a democratic republic, enshrined in the world’s longest-living Constitution. Midterm elections will be held this fall—despite Trump and Republicans’ efforts to rig them in their favor—and 2028 Presidential campaigns will spin up soon after. Ordinary Americans need not take up arms against a tyrannical regime, not yet and hopefully not ever. This does not diminish the stakes at all. The frog in a boiling pot metaphor is woefully out of date: the water’s been bubbling for years. What was written off as delusional hysterics in 2016 are now daily headlines a decade later. Defeating our modern-day oppressors may not require a capital-r Revolution against the government, but it does require a revolutionary change to our government. As the Declaration states, “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it”—emphasis on alter or abolish.

Merely electing new leadership is not a solution to the Trump presidency. Too many guardrails have broken and fatal flaws revealed to paper over with a new face in the Oval Office. The Republican Party cannot be allowed to wash their hands of this experiment with fascism. America will survive Donald Trump but she cannot survive thermostatic oscillation between attempted national suicide and cleaning up the mess every four to eight years. We have already tried a return to normalcy. Donald Trump’s first presidency ended in disaster: nationwide civil unrest and economic turmoil amidst the worst public health crisis in a century. In response the Democratic Party nominated and elected Joe Biden, a lifelong establishment politician and Vice President to the most beloved American politician alive. We all know what happened next. Regardless of how much personal blame you place on Joe Biden, he clearly failed to accomplish his most important task: preventing another Trump presidency. Something more must be done.

I do not pretend to have all of the answers for a future Democratic President or Congress, but I do have the first one. The Trump administration and its enablers must be completely and thoroughly destroyed with the full force of the law. That will require the political will to both ruthlessly enforce existing laws and create new ones. The Declaration of Independence was not a blueprint for what would become the United States; debate and contradiction were no strangers to the nation’s founders. Indeed the Declaration’s most obvious contradiction—that all men are created equal while one in five Americans were enslaved—would lead to civil war a century later. What the Declaration served as was a rallying cry for what they unanimously agreed to be intolerable. In the coming years competing Democratic politicians and factions will spend plenty of time, money, and effort to define what the future of liberalism will look like. No matter what vision you like best, we should all agree that we can no longer afford to believe that Trump and his Republican Party are a temporary anomaly. 

[A]ccordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed … Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

To celebrate America’s 250th birthday let us remember what she was born to do.

Featured image is "Long Live The King," White House 2025.