America’s 250th anniversary of breaking free from British rule began with a campaign-style event on the National Mall hosted by President Donald Trump — a president whose image already appears on banners hanging from federal buildings throughout Washington, D.C.
Those images have come to symbolize how thoroughly Trump has dominated American public life since returning to power, and for many observers, they call to mind the imagery of a monarch rather than the elected leader of the world’s oldest democracy. But it is not just the imagery — it is how he has exercised power that has fueled comparisons to an imperial presidency.
Since taking office again in January 2025, Trump has nominated one of his personal attorneys to serve as attorney general, directed the Department of Justice to go after political opponents, sent U.S. Marines into the nation’s second-largest city, and used the presidency in ways that have personally benefited himself and his family.
He has called for comedians who ridicule him to be fired, attached his name to the Kennedy Center, pushed to take control of elections, filed lawsuits against news outlets whose reporting he found objectionable, and sued his own government seeking $10 billion in taxpayer funds.
As the nation’s founding anniversary draws near, Trump’s own celebration plans have largely eclipsed the bipartisan, congressionally authorized commission that was created to organize commemorative events. He has announced plans to return to the National Mall on July Fourth for what he is calling a “Trump rally.”
The president’s conduct has drawn comparisons to King George III, the British monarch whose rule sparked the American Revolution — a parallel Trump firmly rejects.
“I’m not a king,” he told CBS’ “60 Minutes” earlier this year. “If I was a king, I wouldn’t be dealing with you.”
American political history is filled with opponents labeling presidents as kings. But Julian Zelizer, a historian at Princeton University, argues the comparison lands differently with Trump.
“It’s more about how he imagines who he is 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.”
When King Charles III visited Trump this year, the official White House account on X posted a photo of the two men with the caption “TWO KINGS.” At the beginning of his second term, Trump declared he had ended a New York City transportation program and posted: “LONG LIVE THE KING.” Those posts appeared to suggest a willingness to lean into the label and the reaction it stirs among his critics.
It is no coincidence that the primary resistance movement during Trump’s second term adopted the slogan “No Kings.” Ezra Levin of the group Indivisible said activists had the America 250 celebration in mind when selecting that phrase.
“It looks like the same kind of tyranny we were rebelling against 250 years ago, the type of domination of Americans by a secret police force that’s murdering people in the streets like in Minneapolis this year and in Boston in 1770,” Levin said, referring to demonstrations against the administration’s immigration crackdown that resulted in the fatal shootings of two protesters by federal officers this year.
When asked to respond, the White House pointed to Trump’s own statements regarding his use of executive authority. The president has spoken openly about his expansive approach to presidential power on multiple occasions.
During his first term, he cited Article II of the Constitution while telling attendees at a youth summit, “I have the right to do whatever I want as president,” adding that it “gives me all of these rights at a level nobody has ever seen before.” In an interview with The New York Times this year, he said the only constraint on his global power was “my own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
At the same time, Trump has pushed back against characterizations of his leadership as authoritarian. “I’m not a dictator,” he told reporters last year. When asked about concentrating power in the presidency, he told Time magazine in an interview last year, “I don’t think so. I think I’m using it properly, and I’m also using it as per my election.”
With a largely compliant Republican-controlled Congress, the courts have emerged as the primary remaining check on Trump’s authority. The president has been sharply critical of judges who have ruled against him, and his administration has at times disregarded their orders.
Nevertheless, his drive to expand presidential power has received significant support from the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, which has ruled in Trump’s favor on numerous occasions after lower courts moved to limit him.
In the middle of the 2024 campaign, the high court ruled that presidents enjoy broad immunity from criminal prosecution. That decision derailed several investigations connected to Trump’s first term, including one examining his efforts to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election.
Trump has argued that courts cannot restrain him on key matters, including his claimed authority to dismiss members of independent agencies. One of the most striking examples came in 2024, when a judge during the immunity case asked whether a president could face prosecution for ordering the killing of a political rival. Trump’s attorney, D. John Sauer, responded with a “qualified yes.”
Sauer now serves as solicitor general, the official responsible for presenting arguments before the Supreme Court. He has continued to argue that courts have no authority to review presidential decisions.
“Once the President has made a determination … at that point, there’s no work for the reviewing court to do,” Sauer said during Supreme Court arguments in a case over whether Trump could remove Lisa Cook, a Federal Reserve governor, from her position.
The Supreme Court, however, has allowed Cook to remain in her role while it deliberates. The court’s majority also struck down Trump’s sweeping global tariffs, ruling that only Congress holds that authority.
Such decisions show that presidential power does have boundaries, according to John Yoo, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
“The presidency today, even when colored by President Trump’s worst excesses, is not a monarchy,” he said.
Trump entered the presidency as the wealthiest person ever to hold the office. During his first term, he faced criticism over properties where foreign officials and those seeking his favor spent heavily. Those conflicts of interest have grown more pronounced in his second term.
Trump introduced cryptocurrencies both before and after returning to office. By conservative estimates, one has generated $320 million this year alone, while another sold $550 million in tokens. A third received a $2 billion investment from a foreign wealth fund.
Earlier this year, Trump took the unusual step of filing a private $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns during his first term. His Department of Justice then directed the IRS to settle the case, creating a $1.776 billion fund to compensate people who claimed the federal government had unfairly prosecuted them.
The administration later withdrew the settlement following backlash from both Democratic and Republican members of Congress. But Todd Blanche, a former personal attorney for Trump who now serves as acting attorney general, said at least one element remains in place — a prohibition on the IRS auditing Trump.
Zelizer said Trump’s financial dealings may represent the most monarchy-like aspect of his administration.
“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.
The Justice Department’s involvement in the IRS lawsuit is one illustration of how Trump has directed executive branch employees to function as instruments of his personal will.
In breaking down the traditional separation between the White House and the Justice Department, Trump has pushed federal prosecutors to go after his adversaries. In one social media post last year, he publicly called out by name Pam Bondi, who was serving as attorney general at the time, pressuring her to prosecute several of his political opponents: “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!” Trump wrote.
Indictments followed shortly thereafter, including charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat. The cases against both were eventually dismissed, but the department under Blanche filed new charges against Comey.
The targeting is not confined to past adversaries.
For his 80th birthday this month, the president hosted a UFC fight — a company he has invested in — on the White House lawn. The event aired on a network owned by the son of one of the president’s major donors. The spectacle drew a sharp response from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a frequent Trump critic and potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate.
“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 on X. “The founders warned us about kings enriching themselves from public office.”
Within days, Newsom revealed that Trump’s Department of Justice had launched an investigation into him and his wife.
