Recently, my living room transformed into a Broadway stage. With my wife, kids, and I singing along to the Hamilton soundtrack, conversations inevitably spiraled from lyrics about revolution and ambition into discussions about today’s news.
My daughter, home from summer camp and sporting a growing curiosity about history, became my sounding board as we talked about government, justice, and the state of American politics. After a family debate about the latest Trump executive order, I asked the kids, “What do you think Hamilton would say if he were alive today?” Their answers were both honest and hopeful, and ultimately inspired this essay.
If Alexander Hamilton were to return and take stock of the United States in 2025, I believe he would recognize a nation that has delivered on some founding hopes but has dangerously betrayed others. The framework he helped construct — designed to check tyranny, balance competing interests, and elevate national unity — is still standing. But the forces he feared most — demagoguery, factionalism, and civic apathy — have gained alarming momentum.
As Ron Chernow’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography shows, more than any other Founder, Hamilton understood the fragility of republics. In Federalist No. 1, Hamilton warned of men who would “commence demagogues and end tyrants” — those who exploit public trust to seize power. These were not hypothetical fears; they were urgent warnings aimed at a future generation. Today, centuries later, the country is still struggling with leaders who place personal ambition above principle, who stoke division to consolidate power, and who test the limits of law and accountability.
By Hamilton’s standards, Donald Trump is not simply a controversial president or a populist showman, but a stress test for the American republic itself. Trump’s open disdain for the judiciary, flirtation with authoritarian rhetoric, and persistent efforts to delegitimize democratic institutions are, as historian Richard Brookhiser observes, precisely the kind of executive abuse Hamilton worked desperately to prevent.