Donald Trump rattled off a series of social media posts demanding presidential immunity and threatening his predecessors before heading into the fourth day of his criminal trial Friday.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments next week in Trump’s appeal of his Washington, D.C., election subversion case, in which he claims to have broad immunity as a former president, and he issued what sounded like a threat to prosecute his immediate predecessors and his chief Democratic rival Joe Biden.
“If a President does not have Immunity, the Opposing Party, during his/her term in Office, can extort and blackmail the President by saying that, ‘if you don’t give us everything we want, we will Indict you for things you did while in Office,’ even if everything done was totally Legal and Appropriate,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
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“That would be the end of the Presidency, and our Country, as we know it, and is just one of the many Traps there would be for a President without Presidential Immunity.”
“Obama, Bush, and soon, Crooked Joe Biden, would all be in BIG TROUBLE. If a President doesn’t have IMMUNITY, he/she will be nothing more than a ‘Ceremonial’ President, rarely having the courage to do what has to be done for our Country,” the former president added. “This is not what the Founders had in mind! Protect Presidential Immunity. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Trump has previously threatened to have Biden indicted if he wins a second term in the White House, although presidents don’t have that authority, and has often called for the jailing of his political opponents dating back to his 2016 campaign against Hillary Clinton.
“If immunity is not granted to a president, every president that leaves office will be immediately indicted by the opposing party,” Trump posted in all-caps. “Without complete immunity, a president of the United States would not be able to properly function.”
Trump has been indicted by grand juries on 91 felony counts in four jurisdictions, including Manhattan, where he faces 34 charges related to the alleged falsification of business records to conceal his hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election.
“Without Presidential Immunity, the Presidency will lose its power and prestige, and under some Leaders, have no power at all,” Trump posted minutes before entering the courtroom. “The Presidency will be consumed by the other Branches of Government. THAT IS NOT WHAT OUR FOUNDERS WANTED!”
