The phrase is "taxation without representation", and Trump is the representation. The original founders were upset England could raise taxes and they couldn't vote or do anything about it. We now have elected officials who decide taxes
Heck, the law that Trump is using to set tariff policy is designed to only be used in cases "of national emergency", and Trump has simply defined national emergency to mean whatever he wants it to mean. I think this article gives a good overview of the issues: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-usa-china-deal-is-bad-eco...
It's similar to how Trump has redefined the simple meaning of "foreign invasion" to give cover to his deportations (in some cases I'd call them abductions) without due process.
The people may have voted for this, but in the medium/long term it will be absolutely detrimental to our democracy.
None of which was unanticipated. People had been warning voters about the danger to our democracy long before the election and a huge number of Americans decided that they really didn't care about protecting our democracy.
It's just not important to them. If it were, they wouldn't have first primaried in, and then showed up for the guy in 2024[1].
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[1] I can forgive 2016 and 2020, since at that point, his behavior wasn't that far out of bounds. Since then, he's moved on to conspiring with fraudulent electors, trying to rig vote counts, arresting and imprisoning people without trial, and looking to suspend habeas corpus. Not to mention pay-to-play for access, and treating the treasury like his own personal slush fund.
> He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
> For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
> For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
> For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
> For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
Incorrect. He is the executive. Congress is the representation.
No, it's not. Congress is the representation, not the executive. The executive is supposed to implement what Congress decides.
FWIW I agree that Congress has completely abdicated their duties, but by and large "the people" voted for this, it was not hidden or secret (for all his flaws Trump was very clear what he would do with respect to tariffs for a long time), and I think "taxation without representation" is an incredibly poor analogy.
Ironically I think this is one instance that sort of thing made sense, but they should have done their usual and made some sort of government agency to oversee it themselves. Neither congress nor the president are good managers of tariffs as they're unpopular in the short term, as we've seen, and need a long term outlook.
Yet, somehow, this implicit 'delegation' (where Congress is very actively doing nothing) is somehow kosher. As long as they won't impeach the leader of their party, anything goes! The man could drop a nuclear bomb on Ohio, and as long as he had 34 surviving votes in the Senate, he'd be fine.
If this kind of congressional silence is endorsement, why the hell did SCOTUS get involved to start legislating regulations from the bench in the first place?
That's right, the Republicans decided the rest of 2025 is just one long legal day.
What Trump is doing is unambiguously taxation without representation, as he is not the representative of the citizenry. For one, no single person can be the "representative of the citizenry".
Or, to put it another way, "representation" means that the people have a say in what's happening. With the executive branch, that's not the case. The mechanism for that is Congress.
That's the only leverage Congress has over the president.
Republicans control Congress and the presidency, so there's nobody else to blame here.
Those who were not paying attention last time shouldn't have been allowed to vote this time, but... That Would be Bad, mmmkay.
He also falsely claimed - and his supporters, as is typical, accepted those claims - that other countries would eat that cost.
They voted for tariffs. They were willfully ignorant on their being a tax.
Not on the channels they watch.
There's an entire separate Fox News Cinematic Universe safe space you can immerse yourself in exclusively.
Even when they bring on a sacrificial lib to yell at, humans in general are phenomenal at ignoring or explaining away clear evidence their strongly held beliefs are wrong.