When the United States announced the Declaration of Independence in 1776, they had very specific injustices they were protesting and that they listed as the reasons why King George III should no longer be allowed to rule over them. An incomplete list of the king’s sins were:
- Limiting immigration
- Creating new & wasteful government departments
- Using the military to enforce the law
- Restricting trade
- Altering the forms and institutions of government
- Protecting his loyalists from punishment for unlawful acts
- Refusing to implement laws and measures that would serve the public good
- Refusing to take action on matters that pose immediate threats
Many decades later, an unknown headline author for The Chicago Tribune wrote, “History May Not Repeat, But It Looks Alike.” 2025 is not 1776. But there are significant similarities between how Americans felt about George III in 1776 and how we should feel about Donald Trump in 2025. All of the grievances listed above would apply to Donald Trump as much as they did to George III.
Our nation is founded on the idea that leaders who do these kinds of things are not fit to rule. If the grievances listed in the Declaration of Independence were enough to justify removing George III as the king of America, they are certainly enough to justify removing Donald Trump as the president.
We wouldn’t want to use anyone’s words out of context, so let’s remind ourselves of the context in which the Declaration of Independence was made.
From around 1700 to 1763, Great Britain ruled America fairly equally. During that time, technically the American colonies were not on the same legal footing as the kingdoms of England, Wales, and Scotland, but Great Britain in many ways acted as if they were. They gave the Americans broad latitude to make their own laws, levy their own taxes, and to operate in a fairly independent fashion. Historians have sometimes called this a period of “benign neglect.” Kings George I and II ruled Britain in these decades, and they focused much more on Europe, giving America enough support but also enough space. And so when King George III needed American help to fight the French in the Seven Year’s War (sometimes called the French and Indian War), Americans were happy to serve.
Britain won the war, but was massively in debt afterwards. To pay for these debts, Britain started raising taxes and creating new ones. If they had imposed these taxes on all British subjects, the Americans might not have been too bothered. But the colonies were hit with higher and more targeted taxes than everyone else. Great Britain also now began to exercise more direct control over the colonies. Prior to 1763, royal governors in American colonies were more ceremonial figures than governmental ones. Now they became enforcers of stricter policies coming down from the King. American autonomy was being eroded. Americans protested this curtailing of their rights and privileges, but found they had little legal recourse. As colonies, they had no representation in the British Parliament. Taxes and laws were being imposed on them without them having any say in the government.
For sixty years, Britain had given their American colonies a lot of leeway and equal consideration. But in 1763, new laws and taxes were passed that intended to put the Americans into a place of being servants, with the British as the masters.
This is why the American Revolution happened. It happened because Britain attempted to roll back the rights and privileges that Americans had been accustomed to for decades. They tried to control everything from the center, to treat the people as servants instead of peers. It was in this context that the Declaration of Independence was written, and it is a context not unlike what many Americans face now.
The Declaration of Independence is not the words of people trying to evade taxation. These are the words of people who were having their freedom taken away and were not going to stand for it. We must remember that the Declaration of Independence was not some essay, or blog post, or social media screed, or even a provocative book. It was a message wrapped around a brick and thrown through George III’s window, shouting in no uncertain terms, “No kings!”
When the United States gained their freedom, they recognized that they still needed a strong central government. (It took a few years under the Articles of Confederation to drive this point home, but they got it.) The Founding Fathers wanted to make sure they weren’t just going to create another monarchy though. That’s why the U.S. Constitution places limits and constraints on Congress and the President. These rules are meant to ensure that the states and the courts maintain a certain amount of freedom from the Legislative and Executive Branches, as well as exercising a certain amount of oversight over them. It was designed so we could have strong leaders like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy, but so they couldn’t abuse power the way George III did.
Am I suggesting that we need a second American revolution? No. What I am saying is that supporting Donald Trump is a betrayal of the foundation of America. America exists because we explicitly rejected leaders like him. For people to turn back to that, like a dog to its vomit, is disloyal. George III was not killed, harmed or imprisoned, but he was removed, and Donald Trump should be too.
I am not calling for violence. But the American Revolution became violent, became a war, in part because when you strip people of their rights and autonomy and leave them no legal recourse, violence is the only option left. The British Empire in the late 1700s had the most powerful military on Earth, and the U.S. military is the strongest power on the planet now. Yet a revolution against such a superior force still succeeded - partly because France intervened, partly because Britain didn’t commit significant forces, but partly because Americans were willing to fight to get the British out. Is there a point where Americans would be willing to take up arms to get MAGA out? Do we want to reach that point? I don’t. So I suggest we remove MAGA from the government before it comes to that.
Over the years, Congress has abdicated some of its authority to the President, in violation of the constraints the Constitution intended. Some of these powers include the ability to enact/declare war and the power to levy tariffs. It is time for these and other responsibilities to be rebalanced and the individuals who have abused those powers to be removed. Congress needs to withdraw the powers that they have allowed the Executive Branch to take over, and Donald Trump should be removed from office.
I urge all the members of Congress to no longer put up with your rights and privileges being trampled on. Do not allow the Executive Branch to usurp you. Exercise your right to remove a sitting president. Declare your independence and add your names to the list of people who would be willing to put a torch to their own fortunes for the good of the country, people like John Adams, John Hancock, and Benjamin Franklin.
It is your duty!