Chronicle: The founding fathers pledged their fortune to the cause of freedom. Trump gets richer

SACRAMENTO — Could the Declaration of Independence be signed today by this generation of political leaders, especially the one who occupies and disfigures the White House?

Don’t just sign, but mean it.

Especially the guy who hits a wrecking ball against the wing is historic to make way for an incongruous ballroom monstrosity, which defiles the hallowed Oval Office with gold flakes and paves the charming rose garden.

But never mind these displays of selfishness and bad taste that currently mar the monuments of the nation’s capital, including the National Mall, traditional site of the annual Fourth of July fireworks.

Let’s return to my central question: would there be enough patriots today to put their John Hancocks on a rebellious document which courageously concludes:

“In support of this Declaration, with firm confidence in the protection of Divine Providence, we pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”

Political leaders would most likely sign the most famous preamble which includes this passage, widely considered the most important sentence in American history:

“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, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. »

These words would probably make a good poll and would be sellable talking points at local town halls. Even if the idea that all men are created equal was recognized, as it was 250 years ago, as simply a noble and hypocritical goal. After all, the main author of this eloquent document, Thomas Jefferson, owned 600 slaves.

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Since then, we have made a lot of progress on equality. But it is clear that President Trump and much of America today do not agree that all people are created equal and have the same rights, such as due process in court. People like undocumented immigrants – the tired, the poor, and the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

But this is a heated, politicized debate that is 250 years old and will continue indefinitely.

To me, the most striking and heartfelt sentence of the Declaration of Independence is its last, in which 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776, unanimously pledged “our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”

“It wasn’t a throwaway line,” notes Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeley’s law school and a constitutional scholar. “It was an acknowledgment that they were committing treason. It showed how deeply committed they were.”

The nation’s founders understood that, in the eyes of British King George III, they were traitors. And if their rebellion failed, they would be targeted for execution.

“We must indeed all stick together or, most certainly, we will all stick together separately,” Benjamin Franklin reportedly told delegates.

In fact, nine of the signers died during the Revolutionary War from illness, prison hardship, or combat injuries.

An estimated 6,800 American troops died in combat and more than 8,500 were wounded. An additional 17,000 Americans died.

Several signatories sacrificed their fortunes, some to help finance the war.

General George Washington – an immensely wealthy Virginia planter – refused to accept a salary as commander in chief of the Continental Army. He purchased much of the ammunition and combat equipment himself, then was reimbursed after the war.

Sacred honor? It meant what he said at the time. Revolutionary leaders proved their character through their sacrifice and courage.

The nation’s first president, Washington, could not lie, according to the myth. Of course, he lied regularly during the war to fool the British. But our 47th president, Donald Trump, is a pathological liar who seems to procrastinate on a daily basis.

Would Trump commit his fortune to the cause of freedom?

It’s hard to imagine a president using his position to promote and prosper through his own brand. And whose income soared to $2.2 billion in 2025, his first year in the White House after being forced out by voters in 2020, a humiliation he still lacks the integrity to acknowledge.

“President Trump is using his office to enrich himself and his family in ways we have never seen before,” Chemerinsky says.

Pawn your life? Please!

This is a man who once forged bone spurs to avoid military conscription. OK, he wasn’t the only young man to avoid combat in the pointless Vietnam War, which cost 58,000 American lives.

But Trump called America’s war dead “suckers” and “losers,” according to former aides. He denies it.

There is no doubt that he expressed disdain for the late Senator John McCain, who spent more than five years as a North Vietnamese prisoner. “He’s not a war hero,” Trump said. “I like people who haven’t been captured.”

The Declaration of Independence aimed to break the chains of a British monarchy and create a government powered by the people with checks and balances.

Trump has attempted – often successfully – to rule as a monarch, ignoring the checks and balances of Congress and the judiciary. He got away with it because the bullied Republican congressional leaders mostly turned on him like lapdogs.

But we may be seeing the first signs of a slight revolt against the king as Trump continues to sink in the polls and we inch closer to the November election.

This is a bit what the founders wanted: a government drawing its power “from the consent of the governed”. And when citizens are subjected to “absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to overthrow such a government”.

So could the Declaration be signed today? Hard to say. There is no King George looming over us. Only an aspiring king.

But yes, I suspect there would be a signature. Independence is a dominant gene in American DNA.

What else should you read

Must Read: What you need to know about the $351.7 billion state budget Newsom just signed. Go your own way: Facing setbacks and resistance, Trump is pushing to reshape the election on several fronts. The LA Times Special: More money and patience could help California’s vote count.

Until next week, George Skelton

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