Is Trump our George III?

Here we are, marking yet another “No Kings Day” here in our beloved America, once the world’s beacon of democracy.

This “No King’s Day,” like its predecessors, is driven by growing popular concern of the Trump Administration’s authoritarianism across the range of political, economic, social, and international issues of importance to the nation.

How best to assess and understand Trump’s heavy hand and its iron fist with the MAGA party, once known as the Republican Grand Old Party?

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution should be our starting points. They convey our values and legal frameworks, and challenge us all to form a “more perfect Union.” Next to these foundational documents, the Administration measures poorly and has prompted the “No Kings” protests.

The American colonists’ Declaration of Independence rebuked the perceived tyranny of the British crown and King George III. Its compelling theme: the excesses of rulers and their misguided measures undermine the welfare and liberties of the people.

Signers declared, “The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.”

Like the Founders, let’s look at facts, so little respected in MAGA’s less-than-candid “Post Truth” world. Trump continually drives false narratives via bombast and willful deception. MAGA lost the 2020 election despite the President’s constant lie to the contrary. The 2024 election brought a new administration but did not convey majority support for radical change. The President’s 49.8 percent of the popular vote was no mandate, historic or otherwise. His Electoral College victory hinged on thin margins in a few “battleground” states.

The Founders criticized George III for refusing “his Assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good”, forbidding “his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance”, “cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world”, and making “Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices”.

All have echoes in the MAGA agenda today, whether the President’s open disregard for existing law, his blocking of bipartisan legislation on immigration, his incoherent and illegal trade wars, or efforts to bully and control the judiciary, including the Supreme Court whose July 2024 decision on Presidential immunity has enabled Trump’s ongoing threats to the rule of law and separation of powers.

The British Army colonial deployment angered the Founders who wrote that George III “has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.”

Similarly concerning today, the administration’s unwarranted deployment of the National Guard and federal troops in various states and cities was done for naked political purposes over the stated objection of state and local authorities.

The Founders were concerned that George III had “excited domestic insurrections amongst, ” much as the President did after the November 2020 election. His December 19, 2020 tweet (“be there, will be wild”) convoked a mob to Washington on January 6, 2021; he then personally encouraged them to march to the Capitol to “seize their country back” by blocking the electoral vote count chaired by his own Vice President. His pardoning of the convicted was unconscionable.

For many, our President’s words and actions smack of the George III “tyranny” so egregious to the Founders. For his part, the President has answered every legitimate challenge to his many constitutionally or legally questionable executive actions with his signature “smear and vilify” tactic, attacking judges, the media, opponents and fellow “Republicans” while filing strong arm counter suits to intimidate and squeeze opponents for acquiescence and cash.

The President’s 24/7 firehose communications willfully misrepresented the MAGA’s July 2025 budget legislation’s serious threat to the country’s fiscal and financial stability. The President’s communications effort is based on his own personally owned and cynically mislabeled “Truth Social” platform. This should be a red flag for all, an irrefutable sign of his unrelenting manipulation of fact and truth for his own personal and political aims. Meanwhile, the havoc inflicted on the federal government is open for all to see and the American public is suffering from the disruption, dismantlement and denigration of federal government services.

Abroad, the Administration is wandering, and has now launched the country into war in the Middle East at variance to its own National Security Strategy. The President’s incessant public bullying of key partners and allies on tariffs and the Iran war disruptively undercuts global stability. His waffling on Ukraine and support of Russia ensure that allies and opponents do not respect or take the U.S. seriously. No “America Great Again” but “America Alone” for sure.

Closing the Declaration’s litany of grievances against George III, the Founders declared: “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.” Sound familiar today?

Popular concerns about tyrants have long prevailed. But today, we are living the Founders’ fear of excessive power wielded illegitimately. The country is weakened just when we should be working together to ensure greater strength and stability.

How sad, to celebrate the 250th birthday of the great American Democratic experiment and no longer be the envy of the world.

Mike Mozur is a retired Senior Foreign Service Officer with over 33 years of experience in the Soviet Union, former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Latin America. He also led a global professional association of environmental scientists and writes periodically on current political, economic, and social issues. He is a member of The Steady State.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 former senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.