Former President Donald Trump took his case for presidential immunity to Truth Social, arguing that a president “must have full immunity, without which it would be impossible for him/her to properly function.”
Trump, whose presidential immunity claims have been repeatedly shot down and are now being reviewed by a D.C. appeals court, argued that without immunity, “any mistake, even if well intended, would be met with almost certain indictment by the opposing party,” in a 2 am all-caps post.
“EVEN EVENTS THAT ‘CROSS THE LINE’ MUST FALL UNDER TOTAL IMMUNITY, OR IT WILL BE YEARS OF TRAUMA TRYING TO DETERMINE GOOD FROM BAD,” Trump wrote. “THERE MUST BE CERTAINTY. EXAMPLE: YOU CAN’T STOP POLICE FROM DOING THE JOB OF STRONG & EFFECTIVE CRIME PREVENTION BECAUSE YOU WANT TO GUARD AGAINST THE OCCASIONAL ‘ROGUE COP’ OR ‘BAD APPLE.’ SOMETIMES YOU JUST HAVE TO LIVE WITH ‘GREAT BUT SLIGHTLY IMPERFECT.’ ALL PRESIDENTS MUST HAVE COMPLETE & TOTAL PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY, OR THE AUTHORITY & DECISIVENESS OF A PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES WILL BE STRIPPED & GONE FOREVER. HOPEFULLY THIS WILL BE AN EASY DECISION. GOD BLESS THE SUPREME COURT!”
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance noted that “one of the obvious problems with this (just one of them), is that no former president has ever been indicted. Just Trump.”
“People do these elaborate takes about Trump’s authoritarian aspirations and then he just comes out and says the president should be allowed to do infinite crimes,” tweeted columnist Matt Yglesias.
“A President with ‘full immunity’ is a King, is a dictator,” wrote former Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill. “He’s telling us what he wants. Is this what you want?”
A PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES MUST HAVE FULL IMMUNITY, WITHOUT WHICH IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR HIM/HER TO PROPERLY FUNCTION. ANY MISTAKE, EVEN IF WELL INTENDED, WOULD BE MET WITH ALMOST CERTAIN INDICTMENT BY THE OPPOSING PARTY AT TERM END. EVEN EVENTS THAT “CROSS THE LINE”…
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) January 18, 2024
