Before the end of April, President Donald Trump will have completed his first 100 days in office. Traditionally, pundits and prognosticators use that as a measuring stick of how a new administration is currently faring and likely to perform in the future.

No need to wait that long. There’s no ambiguity about where this president is heading. While campaigning, Trump jokingly promised he’d “be a dictator, but only on Day 1.” It was no joke and it wasn’t just for a day. And there will be some 1,360 more days still to come.

Another “joke” he is fond of is the one about “a third term in office.” This is the one that segues into another laugher, “I am the king.” Trump’s a real kidder—except when he starts confusing being a sovereign over the people with being a servant of the people.

Next year, America will celebrate the 250th anniversary of its independence. Much has changed, of course, since 1776, but it has been our great fortune that many important things have not – principles, values, enduring institutions. That is, until now. Already, in just a few short months, Trump has mocked those principles, trashed this nation’s cherished values and severely undermined the foundations of our institutions.

In May 2023, even before his reelection, Trump promised us “the most spectacular birthday bash ever” in 2026. By that time, however, we may look nothing like a republic as imagined by the Founding Fathers, nor enjoy the protection of the law as stipulated by the Constitution. And no longer relish the freedom and liberty guaranteed by our Bill of Rights.

Although he may never actually be a king, Trump has thought himself a king, wished himself a king and acted as if he were a king. As we move closer to the 250th commemoration of our Declaration of Independence, let’s recall the line in that original document that introduces the long list of grievances brought by America against its colonial masters, specifically the king of England: “The history of the present King . . . is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.”

If “present King” were to reference “Trump,” not “George III,” the tyranny of 1776 would be eerily similar to that we face in the present day. And the imperative for decisive action in defense of our threatened liberty would remarkably be the same. You might also be shocked by the almost-identical nature of the threats and harms posed by their king as stated by the Founders, when compared with those being voiced today against our own self- proclaimed monarch. Here are just a few of many as expressed in the very text of our 250-year-old Declaration:

– He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

– He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners.

– He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

– He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices.

– He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

– He 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.

– He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us . . . 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.

Those are the actual words from the most-seminal document in our nation’s history, as put forth by the people who founded that nation. What conclusions are we to draw from the actions of our current leader in his first 100 days of office? What actions do we need to take to counter the threats so cogently expressed by our forefathers a quarter of a millennium ago?

There is a lesson, perhaps, in our country’s original national anthem—which, surprisingly, is not “The Star-Spangled Banner,” but the simple hymn “America,” written by a young New England churchman named Samuel Francis Smith. Its opening lines, as every one of us knows, begin:

“My country, ‘tis of thee,

Sweet land of liberty.

Of thee I sing.”

Let us not let Donald Trump change the words of that anthem, as he has changed so much in our beloved country, so that these lines will never begin, as he would have them:

“My country, ‘tis of me,

This land belongs to me.

I am your king.”

This country, and the people who built and nurtured it, are stronger and more resilient than a petty tyrant at the head of an empty army of pathetic sycophants.

Let freedom ring, indeed!

Daniel Sullivan, retired and living in Bennington, was editor-in-chief of several IDG publications in the 1980s and 1990s. He was previously a correspondent for The Irish Times and The International Herald Tribune, and a contributor to the New York Times sports blog, “On the Rail.”