America 250 Trump Presidency Raises New Questions About Power, Democracy And ‘No Kings’
The 250th anniversary of America’s liberation from a king began with President Donald Trump holding a campaign-style rally on the National Mall, while banners bearing his face hung from federal buildings across Washington, D.C.
For some Americans, the images captured something larger than a political celebration. They reflected how deeply Trump has dominated public life since returning to power, and how much his second presidency has revived concerns about whether the office is drifting toward the kind of unchecked authority the American Revolution was meant to reject.
Since returning to office in January 2025, Trump has nominated one of his personal lawyers to serve as attorney general, ordered the Department of Justice to pursue his political enemies, deployed the U.S. Marines to the nation’s second largest city and leveraged the presidency to enrich himself and his family.
He has demanded that comedians who mock him be fired, has slapped his name on the Kennedy Center, has pushed to seize control of elections, has filed lawsuits against news organizations whose coverage he disliked and has sued his own government seeking $10 billion in taxpayer money.
With the nation’s 250th anniversary fast approaching, Trump’s personal celebrations have overshadowed the bipartisan, congressionally authorized commission that was created to coordinate events commemorating the country’s founding. He is expected to return to the National Mall on July Fourth for what he has called a “Trump rally.”
The moment has made comparisons to King George III, the British monarch whose rule helped spark the American Revolution, harder to ignore. Trump rejects that comparison.
“I’m not a king,” Trump told CBS’ “60 Minutes” earlier this year. “If I was a king, I wouldn’t be dealing with you.”
Critics Say Trump Stands Apart From Past ‘Imperial Presidency’ Claims
American presidents have long been accused by opponents of acting like kings. But Princeton University historian Julian Zelizer said the label fits differently when applied to Trump.
“It’s more about how he imagines who is he and what the presidency is,” Zelizer said. “We’re celebrating founding principles, and that was a driving issue — fears of how a centralized power can be corrupted. And here we are again.”
Trump and his administration have not always shied away from the royal imagery.
When King Charles III visited Trump this year, the official White House X account posted an image of the two men with the caption, “TWO KINGS.” At the start of his second term, Trump declared he had ended a New York City transportation program and posted, “LONG LIVE THE KING.”
The language helped fuel one of the main resistance slogans of Trump’s second term: “No Kings.” The movement, organized in part by Indivisible, has tied its message directly to the America 250 anniversary and the country’s founding rejection of monarchy.
Ezra Levin of Indivisible said organizers were looking ahead to 2026 and the America 250 commemoration when they adopted the slogan.
“It looks like the same kind of tyranny we were rebelling against 250 years ago,” Levin said.
The White House has referred questions about Trump’s use of executive power back to the president’s own statements. Trump has repeatedly defended his broad view of presidential authority, including during his first term when he pointed to Article II of the Constitution and said, “I have the right to do whatever I want as president.”
He also told The New York Times this year that the only check on his global power was “my own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
Still, Trump has rejected claims that he is authoritarian.
“I’m not a dictator,” he told reporters last year.
In a separate interview with Time, Trump said he did not believe he was concentrating power in the presidency.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I think I’m using it properly, and I’m also using it as per my election.”
Supreme Court Has Helped Shape The Limits Of Trump’s Power
With a Republican-controlled Congress largely deferential to Trump, the courts have become one of the final checks on his presidency. Trump has sharply criticized judges who ruled against him, and his administration has at times been accused of defying court orders.
But Trump’s effort to expand presidential power has been aided by the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, which has repeatedly sided with him after lower courts blocked or slowed parts of his agenda.
During the 2024 campaign, the high court ruled that presidents have broad immunity from prosecution for official acts. That decision derailed multiple investigations connected to Trump’s first term, including one focused on his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump has argued that courts cannot constrain the president on key issues, including his authority to fire members of independent agencies.
One of the most widely discussed moments came during the presidential immunity case, when a judge asked whether a president could be prosecuted for ordering the assassination of a political rival. Trump’s lawyer, D. John Sauer, gave a “qualified yes.”
Sauer is now solicitor general, the administration official who oversees arguments before the Supreme Court. He has continued to argue that courts cannot review certain presidential acts.
“Once the President has made a determination … at that point, there’s no work for the reviewing court to do,” Sauer said during arguments in a case over whether Trump could fire Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve governor.
The Supreme Court has allowed Cook to remain on the board while the case continues. The court has also ruled against Trump in other major matters, including his global tariffs, finding that only Congress had the authority he attempted to use.
John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said those rulings show that presidential power still has limits.
“The presidency today, even when colored by President Trump’s worst excesses, is not a monarchy,” Yoo said.
Trump’s Business Ties Raise Questions About Personal Enrichment
Trump was already the richest person ever elected president. During his first term, he faced criticism for continuing to own properties where foreign dignitaries, lobbyists and others seeking influence spent money. In his second term, critics say the conflicts of interest have grown.
Trump has launched cryptocurrencies before and after returning to office. By conservative estimates cited in the AP report, one has brought in $320 million this year alone, another sold $550 million in tokens and a third received a $2 billion investment from a foreign wealth fund.
Trump also filed a private $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns during his first term. His Department of Justice later directed the IRS to settle litigation in a way that would have created a $1.776 billion fund to pay damages to people who claimed the federal government unfairly prosecuted them.
The administration pulled back the settlement after criticism from both Democrats and Republicans in Congress. But Todd Blanche, a former personal lawyer for Trump who is now acting attorney general, said at least one provision remains: a ban on the IRS auditing Trump.
Zelizer said Trump’s financial entanglements may be the clearest example of a monarchy-like presidency.
“We have not seen a person who has a business operation of this scale and scope benefiting directly from the decisions he makes,” Zelizer said.
Justice Department Becomes A Flashpoint In Trump’s Second Term
Trump’s critics also point to how he has used the federal government against political opponents.
In one social media post last year, Trump called out Pam Bondi, who was attorney general at the time, and urged her to prosecute several of his enemies.
“JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!” Trump wrote.
Indictments followed, including against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. The charges against both were eventually dismissed, but the Justice Department under Blanche later filed new charges against Comey.
The pressure campaign has not been limited to Trump’s older political opponents.
For his 80th birthday this month, Trump hosted a UFC fight on the White House lawn. The company is one he has invested in, and the event aired on a network owned by the son of one of his major donors.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a persistent Trump critic and possible 2028 Democratic presidential contender, criticized the spectacle on X.
“The White House was built to serve the American people. Tonight it was used to promote a company the President owns stock in, sell subscriptions, promote corporate sponsors, push Trump crypto, and enrich the President and his family,” Newsom wrote. “The founders warned us about kings enriching themselves from public office.”
Days later, Newsom disclosed that Trump’s Department of Justice was investigating him and his wife.
America’s 250th Anniversary Arrives With An Old Warning
The irony of the moment is difficult to miss.
America is preparing to celebrate 250 years since it declared independence from monarchy. Yet the national conversation heading into July Fourth is filled with arguments about kings, executive power, personal enrichment, political retaliation and the future of democratic checks and balances.
Trump’s supporters say he is using the power voters gave him. His critics say he is stretching the presidency toward something the founders feared.
Either way, America’s 250th birthday is not arriving as a quiet patriotic milestone. It is arriving as a test of the country’s oldest promise: that no one in the United States is supposed to rule like a king.
