The King Cannot Tax Without Parliament

The principle that taxation cannot be dictated without the consent of the governed is older than the country itself. Yet Donald Trump needed a swift reminder.

In 1765, the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act, imposing taxes on the American colonies without their consent. The colonists’ objection was not merely that they disliked the tax. It was a constitutional one: the power to tax belonged to the legislature, not the Crown. Twenty-two years later, they wrote a Constitution that enshrined exactly that principle.

On February 20, 2026, Chief Justice John Roberts reminded the President of the United States that this is still true.