Is Donald Trump making the same mistakes that caused Great Britain to lose America?

January 27th, 2025 by Tom Lynch

“Everything one has a right to do is best not to be done.” — Benjamin Franklin

1763

In 1763, at the end of the Seven Years War (known in America as the French and Indian War), Great Britain had more than doubled her land in North America, had secured the whole of the Atlantic coast, and had triumphed in India and the Caribbean. However, in creating an “empire on which the sun never sets,” she had depleted her Treasury to £4 million and nearly doubled her national debt from £74 million to £133 million. Military spending as a percentage of GDP averaged 74.6%. Moreover, the Treaty of Paris that ended the war ceded Spain all land west of the Mississippi and restored to France her previously held Caribbean islands.

The British government estimated that defending her newly-won possessions would require 10,000 troops permanently stationed in America. The question became how to pay for that.

The first thought of the British government in 1763, under Prime Minister Lord Bute, was to increase taxes on British citizens to raise the necessary funds. This produced riots, especially in the West Country, and a single speech made in Parliament by the brilliant William Pitt ended those taxes on the spot and brought down the Bute government. In his speech, Pitt said:

The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail; its roof may shake; the wind may blow through it; the storm may enter; the rain may enter; but the King of England cannot enter — all his force dares not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement!

When  Bute was forced to resign, he was replaced by George Grenville.

Narrow minded and arrogant, but efficient and capable, as most prime ministers of the era, like Bute, were not (with the notable exception of Pitt, who had guided the country to victory in the war, but who had now retired to his country estates), Grenville decided it was only fair that the American colonists contribute to their own defense. Consequently, he introduced a series of taxes in Parliament — the Sugar Act (1764), the Currency Act (1764), and the Stamp Act (1765).

Three important points need to be made about these taxes. First, Britain imposed them on the Colonies without the Colonies having any say in the matter.  Although America had several high-ranking friends in Great Britain, it did not have a single representative in the British Parliament. This led to the famous phrase, “Taxation without representation is tyranny.”

Second, the amount of money needed to enforce these taxes far outweighed any profit ever derived from them. This was evident to the most capable British public policy experts, such as Horace Walpole and Edmund Burke, who said as much in Parliament repeatedly. It didn’t matter. Grenville went ahead with his taxes.

Parliament ramrodding the taxes down the throats of the American colonists led Benjamin Franklin to make a note in his diary, writing, “Everything one has a right to do is not best to be done.” In other words, just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should.

Third, Grenville’s taxes and the British government’s refusal to appreciate and understand their American colonist citizens, who considered themselves loyal subjects of the Crown, led to Lexington, Concord, the Declaration of Independence, and the American Revolution over the next twelve years. During those twelve years, the British never once sent a single member of the Crown’s government to America to speak with colonist leaders. British authorities did not think it necessary to the colonists, whom they considered “rabble.” Here was governmental arrogance on a massive scale.

This brings me to Donald Trump, his Executive Orders, pronouncements, and the direction in which he appears to be steering America. While he is no King George III or George Grenville, with his myopic vision of public policy, his actions could prove just as consequential as theirs.

2025

Executive Orders are directives from a president to federal agencies on how the government should manage a particular issue. Presidents are granted authority under Article II of the Constitution to issue these orders, which don’t require the input of Congress, but carry the force of law.

While many executive orders are effective immediately, they often take time and resources to implement. Congress can undercut executive orders by passing legislation that guts them— for instance by removing funding needed to carry them out — or by making them difficult to implement. Courts can declare the orders unconstitutional.

In 2017, early in the first Trump administration, things were dysfunctional and chaotic. He and those he had gathered around him were new to the job and didn’t know what they were doing — and it showed. For example, in his first five days in office Trump issued only four executive orders.

This time around, Trump and his acolytes had four years to plan, and in his first five days in office, the planning was evident. He issued 59 Executive Orders, as well as eight pronouncements not requiring Executive Orders. Some of the Executive Orders are, to use a technical term, nothingburgers. But others have struck many in the nation with abject terror.

Last week, in those first few days in office, it became apparent the blueprints being followed had been laid out in Project 2025, the document Trump disavowed repeatedly during the campaign. An analysis by TIME found that nearly two-thirds of the executive actions Trump issued in the first week of his new administration mirror or partially mirror proposals from that 923-page document, ranging from sweeping deregulation measures to brutal and heartless immigration reform to the return of Schedule F, and more.

It is ironic, that, as a convicted felon and sexual abuser, Donald Trump has the power to pardon any person charged or convicted in federal court — like the more than 1,500 January 6th insurrectionists convicted and serving time, or awaiting trial. This was the largest undertaking in Justice Department history, and last week, rather than study this group on a case-by-case basis, as he promised during his campaign, Trump, who has a famously short attention span,  just said, “Fuck it. Release ’em all,” one White House adviser told Axios. With a wave of his hand, he granted clemency to all those charged in the January 6th, 2021, assault on the Capitol, including those convicted of seditious conspiracy or assaulting police officers resulting in serious bodily damage. Trump has repeatedly called these people “hostages.” This action stunned even his supporters and cannot be undone.

Next, he ordered security protection removed from Dr. Anthony Fauci, John Bolton and Mike Pompeo despite our intelligence services asserting Iran had plotted to murder them. Why? Because they criticized him.

As President, he has the power to do all this, and more.

All of which brings us back to the Great Britain of 1763 and Benjamin Franklin.

The British gave away an entire continent with their cavalier, shortsighted, and arrogant refusal to understand and deal with their American subjects. With even a modicum of humility and outreach, the American Revolution might never have happened. But, of course, it did — and the world was changed, turned upside down.

In addition to admonishing, “Everything one has a right to do is best not to be done,” Franklin also reminded Americans the Founders had created, not a monarchy, but a Republic, and that keeping it would be a challenge.

These are certainly challenging times, and, throughout his public life, Donald Trump has never demonstrated humility and has rarely reached out to those who have dared to disagree with him. His recipe for success has been to hit first and hit hard. When he can, he does.

The ultimate questions are these: Is Donald Trump, with his cruel, callous, and narcissistic depravity, assaulting the very concept of our hard-won Republic? How will he and his chaotic shock and awe second presidency be viewed with the zoom lens of history? Is he making the same mistakes 18th-century Britain made?

Perhaps the best question is this: As he pursues his assault on democracy, will Donald Trump and his MAGA movement implode on itself as the better angels of the nation once again rise to rescue it from its worst demons?

For what it’s worth, I’m with the Angels.