After Donald Trump’s victory in 2024, many people became fearful of what Trump might do. This ranged from higher grocery prices to the dismantling of the constitution. Yet as of 2026, things seem to be okay for a large number of people. Yet some people are fearful and angry over what’s been going on. So who’s correct? What rights have the American people lost in a year and a half?
According to the Department of Homeland Security, they are now detaining 70,000 people in jails across the country, which is more people than the department has ever held. Since it was founded in 2002. 23. Immigrants have died in custody, having the highest number of deaths in immigration detention centers in history.
Undocumented immigrants are entitled to due process under the Fifth Amendment and the 14th Amendment, which states that all people within the United States borders, regardless of status, have a right to a fair hearing in immigration Court and to challenge deportation while having the evidence be viewed. Donald Trump has repeatedly violated both of these amendments, which strip immigrants of their day in court. The administration has bypassed traditional hearings through the use of expedited removal. What this does is allow immigration officers to deport someone without a hearing before an immigration judge, while targeting individuals who cannot prove they have been in the US for more than 2 years. The use of expedited removal has mostly been limited to people caught near the border or shortly after entering the United States, but this has been applied against immigrants nationwide. Thousands of people have not had a trial or a judge, which has violated the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment.
As if to make it more obvious that these people are facing injustice, since early 2025, according to the Department of Justice, dozens of immigration judges and Board of Immigration Appeals members have been replaced. Since this, deportation judges have denied citizenship more frequently, and much more often, insinuating that these judges have something to fear. The cost to appeal a deportation order has also been more challenging, as the price in order to appeal has skyrocketed from $110 from 2025 to well over $1,000. This system was directly put in place to undermine immigrants who have a low income.
The Trump administration champions itself for its free speech, yet they seem supportive of the fact that Tennessee punishes students for protesting. According to the Charlie Kirk Act, Students can be suspended or expelled if they participate in a walkout against any public speaker, like Charlie Kirk. The freedom to protest is now legally defined as “substantial interference” with the free speech rights of others. By labeling a peaceful walkout as “interference,” the state is criminalizing a form of protected symbolic speech, therefore violating the first amendment.
One of the largest arguments for the Republican Party is the advocacy for the Second Amendment. Oftentimes, many Republicans go out of their way to ensure that stricter gun laws are not passed, so surely these rights belong to everyone? Under Donald Trump’s administration, the right for transgender individuals to own a gun has been continuously undermined, and while not federally enacted or finalized, the early blueprints have been set.
Executive Order 14168, signed in January of 2025, defined sex as a biological binary. What this does is give agencies the ability to rescind nondiscrimination protocols and policies, essentially allowing transgender individuals to not fall under protected categories. Along with this, the administration has tried to use the national instant criminal background check system to bar trans people from purchasing firearms, the same system used to ensure mentally defective people are unable to handle firearms.
What’s made worse by this is that in late 2025, following a school shooting in Minneapolis by transgender individual. The DOJ has been reported to draft proposals to restrict gun rights, specifically for people with mental health challenges. Well, that seems like an inefficient policy to reduce the number of school shootings. The administration has often categorized gender dysphoria and transgender people as” delusional, or a mental illness. This suggests that the classification that could be used to ban certain people from owning a firearm could be applied to transgender people.
Since the debate began, the National Rifles Association has publicly gone against these measures, and publicly renounced support for him. The biggest gun advocacy group has publicly criticized Trump for trying to take away the second amendment from titans people, and we can see this as proof of a direct attack on the second amendment
Trump has repeatedly insinuated that the 22nd Amendment, which is the two-term limit on the presidency, should be revoked. His sales of Trump 2028 hats, along with his several inappropriate comments insinuating that he would run for president again, made him against the 22nd Amendment. Whether or not he said these things is a joke; his profit from these hats, and his blatant disregard for the other previous amendments show that there is a very strong chance he is willing to violate this amendment.
In conclusion, of the 22 amendments of the United States Constitution, Donald Trump has violated, attempted to, or suggested the removal of a grand total of six amendments. That is 27 % of the amendments. When people speak out from their fear of losing their rights, they speak from a justifiable standpoint. Trump has undermined the people of the United States for his own profits, as well as blatant bigotry that has set back the civil rights movement.
This is not to say that our nation is hopeless or defenseless against his tyranny. Several states have sued the Trump administration, including our own Colorado, showing heavy resistance in the ability to fight back. While Trump wants to be a tyrant, that does not mean he is. He is simply a billionaire who is in a position of power, one that is specifically designed to prevent a king from taking hold of our nation.
