Contra Trump

禍起蕭牆

In the midst of the Iran–US military crisis of June 2025, US President Donald J. Trump gestured towards a framed copy of the Declaration of Independence that he had ordered to be mounted on the wall of the Oval Office, and observed:

[I] see the Declaration of Independence and I say I wonder if you—you know the Civil War?—it always seemed to me maybe that could have been solved without losing 600,000 plus people so…

The Declaration of Independence was published on 4 July 1776, on the eve of the American Revolutionary War. The American Civil War, however, broke out in 1861.

Gazetted by Congress in 1870, 4 July Independence Day is the national day of the United States and a public holiday.

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On 4 July 1996, I attended a screening of the sci-fi movie Independence Day at Vista Theater on Hollywood Drive in Los Feliz, Los Angeles. The Egyptian-themed theatre was packed with an excited and raucous holiday crowd. The box-office success of Independence Day inspired led a resurgence of the Hollywood blockbuster and disaster and science fiction films have flourished ever since.

At a number of points during that 4 July screening of Independence Day at The Vista, the audience roared with unalloyed delight. First, there was the scene showing crowds of UFO enthusiasts gathered on the roofs of skyscrapers, including the First Interstate Bank World Center in downtown LA, to welcome what they thought were friendly aliens. When a City Destroyer — one of the massive alien spacecraft — opened fire on the centre as its primary target, obliterating the centre of the city, the crowd cheered with glee … Then, another alien ship was shown hovering directly over The White House in Washington. The President had initially decided to remain there in the hope of calming the populace but, when it was evident that the aliens were hostile, he ordered an emergency evacuation. He escaped shortly before The White House was obliterated, much to the raucous pleasure of my fellow filmgoers.

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By 4 July 2025, The White House had been undone by barbarians within the gates; they were an invading force that had been elected to office by a slim majority of the American voting public. Now Men in Black, masked thuggish ICE agents, also roam with impunity. The scale of the devastation they had wrought, and would continue to visit on the nation and the world, was of blockbuster proportions.

Some chroniclers of America’s decline date the beginning of the end as being 16 June 2015. It is on that day that, to quote Ohh That’s Rich, ‘that greasy clog slid down that golden escalator like a hairball in Ann Coulter’s shower drain.’ A day some ten years later — 1 July 2024 — would mark the end of the beginning of the end. That was when the Supreme Court of the United States issued its decision in the case Trump v. United States. The Court determined that presidential immunity from criminal prosecution presumptively extends to all of a president’s ‘official acts’. In effect, America now had a ‘king-president’. At the time, J. Michael Luttig, a well-known conservative former federal judge, was unequivocal in his response to the ruling:

There is no support whatsoever in the Constitution or even in the Supreme Court’s precedents, for the past 200 years, for this reprehensible decision by the Supreme Court. Needless to say, the decision is irreconcilable with America’s democracy, the Constitution, and the rule of law…

America’s democracy and the rule of law are this country’s heart and soul. Our democracy and the rule of law are what have made America the envy of the world and the beacon of freedom to the world for almost 250 years. Now, today, the Supreme Court cut that heart and soul out of America.

Here, in marking 4 July 2025 in our Contra Trump series, we offer Judge Luttig’s celebration of The Declaration of Independence and his critique of the lawlessness and tyranny of the Trump regime.

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禍起蕭牆 huò qǐ xiāoqiáng, the Chinese rubric of this chapter in Contra Trump, has its origins in The Analects of Confucius:

Lord Ji was going to attack Zhuanyu. Ran You and Zilu came to see Confucius, and said to him: “Lord Ji is going to intervene in Zhuanyu.” … “For Lord Ji, I’m afraid, the real menace does not come from Zhuanyu, it lies within the walls of his own palace.”

季氏將伐顓臾。冉有、季路見於孔子曰：季氏將有事於顓臾。… 吾恐季孫之憂，不在顓臾，而在蕭牆之內也。

—《論語·季氏》, trans. Simon Leys

— Geremie R. Barmé
Editor, China Heritage
4 July 2025

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The Self-Evident Truths of Freedom—and of Tyranny

Judge J. Michael Luttig

 

When the tyrannical reign of King George III became destructive of the ends of government by law under which all persons are equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights, the American Colonists declared their independence from the British King, chronicling 27 grievances of self-evident truths about tyranny as reasons for their declaration of independence.

On this July 4, 2025, the eve of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of America’s declaration of independence and the founding of this Nation, “We the People” hold to be self-evident these 27 truths about freedom—and about tyranny.

— All persons are endowed with certain rights, liberties, and freedoms that are unalienable and that are the bulwark against tyranny by government.

For, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

— Government should secure, protect, and preserve our unalienable rights, liberties, and freedoms.

For, the King “has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection.”

— Government is instituted and its powers derived from the consent of we, the governed, in order that government will secure, protect, and preserve our rights, liberties, and freedoms.

For, “To secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” and “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it” and “to institute new Government . . . laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

— Government power is limited, and government is obligated to conform its every act to the requirements of law, which acknowledges our creation as equals and enshrines our equal and unalienable rights, liberties, and freedoms.

For, the King gave “his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments.”

— Every person’s rights, liberties, and freedoms—as well as the rights of the majority and minority—are best secured and safeguarded by separation of the respective powers of the Legislature, the Executive, and the Judiciary. By separation of the powers of each of the branches of government from the powers of the others, the powers of each of the three coequal branches of government are limited and checked and balanced by the powers of the others.

For, the King “has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures,” he “has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance,” and he “has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.”

— Each, the Legislature, the Executive, and the Judiciary should exercise only the powers respectively enumerated and conferred upon it by the Constitution or otherwise by law, thereby both avoiding and guarding against encroachment upon the powers of the other two branches of government.

For, the King “has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.” He also “has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.” The King “obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers” and “he has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.”

— Government should provide for the common defense, protect the homeland, support our allies abroad, and prevent foreign interference in the affairs of the nation.

For, the King “abolished the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies.”

— Government should wage war against foreign enemies only when authorized by the Congress of the United States in a Declaration of War.

For, the King “has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.”

— Government should only wage war against foreign enemies, not misperceived domestic enemies. The people are not the enemy of the government. Rather, the government that regards the people as its enemy is itself the enemy of the people.

For, the King “has excited domestic insurrections amongst us” and “has abdicated Government here . . . by waging War against us.” The King “is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.”

— Government should respect the need for the separation of military from civil authority and the need to limit military to military purpose and not to civil purpose.

For, the King “has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.”

— Government should respect that America is a nation of immigrants from foreign lands.

For, “We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here” yet the King “endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.”

— Government should respect the need for free and open trade with the world.

For, the King has “given his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world.”

— Every person should have the right to petition government and petition the government for redress of oppressions without government answer of injury.

“For, in every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned the King 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.”

— Every person should have the right to dissent from government and to protest government peacefully.

For, where tyranny and despotism demand allegiance to tyrant and to uniformity, democracy and freedom from tyranny demand the opposite – allegiance to country and to differences of people and opinion. “When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce a People under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

— Every person should have the right to speak freely and to associate freely with others without fear that government will punish them for the exercise of their right to speak and associate freely.

— No person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, the promise and guarantee against arbitrary government by tyrants, monarchs, and kings.

For, the King “abolished the free System of English Laws . . . and established therein an Arbitrary government.”

— Every person is equal under law, enjoys the same privileges and protections of law, and is subject to the same constraints and penalties of law.

For, “all men are created equal [and] are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”

— No person is above the law. The law applies equally to all persons elected or appointed to serve the American people in their government as it does to all other persons, and all elected or appointed representatives of the people are accountable under law for their offenses against the people as every other person is accountable for their offenses.

“For as in absolute governments the king is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other . . . Let a crown be placed thereon. . . . But lest any ill use should afterwards arise, let the crown at the conclusion of the ceremony be demolished, and scattered among the people whose right it is.”

— No person elected or appointed to represent the people enjoys the royal prerogatives of a king. America was impelled to seek its separation and independence from the tyranny of a king.

For, the King “has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.” The King “has abolished the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies.”

— Every person should be equally franchised as provided by the Constitution and able to vote freely for their representatives to government in free and fair elections.

For, the King “has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance” and “he has refused to pass other Laws . . . unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.”

— Every candidate for elected public office should pledge to the American people that they will accept, respect, and honor, the will of the people expressed in the results of the people’s free and fair elections and that they will honor the peaceful transfer of power from one office holder to the next.

For, we the people hold all power and “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” We the people established government by law, instead of by men, in order that our representatives could not, like the king, subjugate us to their will. Our representatives are subjugated to our will by Constitution and Law. “Lest any ill use should afterwards arise, let the crown at the conclusion of the ceremony be demolished, and scattered among the people whose right it is.”

— All persons should have access to independent courts of law to vindicate their rights and interests, and the courts of law should be neither political nor beholden to either the Legislature or Executive.

For, the King “obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers” and he made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.”

— All persons suspected and accused of criminal offense should be protected from government abuse by the Constitution’s limitations on searches and seizures, due process, equal protection, the privilege against self-incrimination and by the prohibitions on selective and vindictive prosecutions, double jeopardy, and cruel and unusual punishments.

— No person should be tried for criminal offense except by jury of peers.

For, the King “deprived us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury.”

— No person should be investigated or investigated and prosecuted for offenses against the nation except in accordance with law.

— No person should be investigated by the Executive on pretext or investigated and prosecuted by the Executive on pretext in revenge and retaliation for different opinion or politics from the Executive or for personal offense taken by the Executive.

For, the King “transported us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences” and “quartered large bodies of armed troops among us and protected them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States.”

— All persons should have the right to counsel who is independent of the government and uninfluenced and uninfluenceable by the government, and whose highest responsibility in the representation of their client is to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution against abuse by the government.

For, the King “tried us for pretended offences” and “protected . . . murderers by a mock Trial, from punishment.”

On this Independence Day, July 4, 2025, these self-evident truths of freedom—and of tyranny—are solemnly declared and published.

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Source:

• Judge J. Michael Luttig, The Self-Evident Truths of Freedom—and of Tyranny, Telos, 4 July 2025

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If You’re Not at the Table, You’re on the Menu

As we noted in America — History Can’t Judge & It Certainly Won’t Absolve, the 2nd of July 2025 would live on in infamy as the day on which the US Senate narrowly approved Donald Trump’s hideous ‘B.B.B.’, or One Big Beautiful Bill Act, legislation that promised draconian cuts to welfare while enacting the largest upward transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in American history. Congress duly endorsed the bill on 3 July 2025, on the eve of the president’s 4 July deadline. It was exactly sixty-one years and one day after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. — Ed.

The bill adds a total of $170.7 billion to immigration enforcement. It roughly triples the annual detention and enforcement budgets for the masked men of Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the next four years.

And according to our vice president, JD Vance, this was the point of it all: “Everything else—the CBO score, the proper baseline, the minutiae of the Medicaid policy—is immaterial compared to the ICE money and immigration enforcement provisions.”

All those people losing health insurance? “Minutiae.” “Immaterial.” Mass detention and deportation are what matters. They’re not only key to Making America Great Again, they’re what it means to Make America Great Again. That’s the MAGA dream: Finally getting rid of all those foreigners seeking refuge and opportunity here, in our land.

And mass detention and deportation are also key to advancing the other point of it all: authoritarianism. That’s the other part of the MAGA dream: Finally getting rid of all those annoying features of due process and the rule of law, all those restraints of civility and decency, that have kept us from doing what we want.

And so, while his vice president was breaking the tied vote in the Senate, Donald Trump was celebrating a new detention facility in the Florida Everglades. It’s a physical manifestation and apt symbol of the MAGA dream. How proud they all were of its clever name—“Alligator Alcatraz”—and the collection of tents filled with cages to hold immigrants.

— William Kristol, United States of Alcatraz, The Bulwark, 2 July 2025

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