Current Affairs, A Magazine of Politics and Culture Of Course The Founding Fathers Would Have Hated Trump
They rejected kings and were sincerely concerned about the possibility of a dictatorship. But we need to move past founder-worship and focus on justice.
By Nathan J. Robinson, filed 04 July 2025 in History
On July 4th, we can say one thing for sure about the Founding Fathers: they would have fucking hated Donald Trump. Trump may have revived the 18th century practice of capitalizing letters seemingly at random (the Declaration of Independence says “He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country,” while Trump posts things like “Iowa voted for me THREE TIMES, because they love my Policies for our Wonderful Farmers and Small Businesses”). But the founders were thoughtful about executive power. They detested monarchy. They had long philosophical debates over exactly how the government should keep from turning into a tyranny. Trump, meanwhile, flagrantly violates the Constitution in both domestic and foreign affairs.
Of course, we should approach the founding generation with deep skepticism. For one thing, we know that most of them were morally blind on the most important issue of their day, slavery. Thomas Jefferson kept people enslaved while knowing full well that it was wrong, and ignored the pleas of ex-slave Benjamin Banneker, who wrote to him personally to beg him to live up to the principles of the Declaration of Independence. The majority of Americans (women, Black people, Native Americans) were excluded from participating in democracy at the founding of the country, which undermines the legitimacy of the entire Constitution.
Nevertheless, it’s striking just how far the current president’s view of executive power departs from the original vision of the framers, the men that the American right ostensibly worships and whose “original” vision they say they want to emulate. Take borders, for instance. Trump recently proudly presided over the opening of a brutal new swamp prison for immigrants. Trump was amused at the prospect that if they tried to escape, the immigrants would be attacked and possibly eaten by alligators. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt boasted that “Alligator Alcatraz” was “isolated and surrounded by dangerous wildlife and unforgiving terrain.” Thousands of people will be housed in tents there even in the punishing Florida heat, part of Trump’s effort to fulfill his plan to kick millions of people out of the country who have done nothing except work difficult jobs in construction and agriculture.
