DNC National Press Secretary Emilia Rowland released the following statement: 

“Days after the Supreme Court’s Trump v. U.S. decision that effectively put the office of the president above the rule of law and granted virtually unlimited immunity for presidential crimes, it’s never been clearer that freedoms Americans celebrate every Independence Day are on the verge of being ripped away. Trump has repeatedly put himself above our democracy, our Constitution, and freedoms Americans will spend today celebrating with their families. The only thing standing between Donald Trump and the democracy that we hold dear is President Biden – and we will spend every day between now and November ensuring that come July 4, 2025, our freedoms and democracy are protected.”

Trump has previously marked the holiday by spewing dangerous conspiracies and attacking the fourth estate. 

CNN: “Donald Trump uses July 4th address to put forward a dangerously misleading claim”

Washington Post: “The evolution of Donald Trump, as seen in his Fourth of July tweets”

If reelected, Trump wants to expand and stretch presidential power and threatens to use the government to go after his political opponents. 

Axios: “Former President Trump, if re-elected, plans to immediately test the boundaries of presidential and governing power, knowing the restraints of Congress and the courts are dramatically looser than during his first term, his advisers tell us. 

“Why it matters: It’s not just the Supreme Court ruling on Monday that presidents enjoy substantial legal immunity for actions in office. Trump would come to office with a Cabinet and staff pre-vetted for loyalty, and a fully compliant Republican coalition in Congress — devoid of critics in positions of real power…

“The big picture: Trump promises an unabashedly imperial presidency — one that would turn the Justice Department against critics, deport millions of people in the U.S. illegally, slap 10% tariffs on thousands of products, and fire perhaps tens of thousands of government staff deemed insufficiently loyal. 

“He’d stretch the powers of the presidency in ways not seen in our lifetime. He says this consistently and clearly — so it’s not conjecture. You might like this or loathe this. But it’s coming, fast and furious, if he’s elected.”

The Atlantic: “Late Friday night, the former president of the United States—and a leading candidate to be the next president—insinuated that America’s top general deserves to be put to death. 

“That extraordinary sentence would be unthinkable in any other rich democracy. But Donald Trump, on his social-media network, Truth Social, wrote that Mark Milley’s phone call to reassure China in the aftermath of the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, was ‘an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH.’”

New York Times: “Donald J. Trump and his allies are planning a sweeping expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government if voters return him to the White House in 2025, reshaping the structure of the executive branch to concentrate far greater authority directly in his hands. […]

“Mr. Trump and his associates have a broader goal: to alter the balance of power by increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the White House, according to a review of his campaign policy proposals and interviews with people close to him.” 

Washington Post: “Trump says on Univision he could weaponize FBI, DOJ against his enemies”

Trump denied the 2020 election and attempted to avoid a peaceful transition of power, instead inspiring a violent assault on our nation’s Capitol, and is leaving the door open for the possibility of political violence if he loses again.

ABC News: “Former President Donald Trump is playing down but not ruling out the possibility of political violence if he loses the November election.

“‘I don’t think we’re going to have that. I think we’re going to win,’ Trump told Time magazine in a cover story published on Tuesday.

“He had been asked about an earlier comment to Time that ‘I think we’re gonna have a big victory and I think there will be no violence’ — but ‘what if you don’t win, sir?’ the Time reporter said.

“‘If we don’t win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election,’ Trump went on to say.

“He has previously warned of problems if things go wrong for him, writing on social media last year, before he faced any of his four criminal indictments, that ‘false’ charges against him would bring ‘potential death & destruction.’”

Associated Press: “​​President Donald Trump on Wednesday again declined to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the Nov. 3 presidential election.”

CNN: “Trump has previously refused to say whether he would accept the election results, echoing his sentiments from 2016. And he has joked – he says – about staying in office well past the constitutionally bound two terms.”