In a lengthy series of overnight posts on Truth Social, Donald Trump made his argument for why he deserves “Total Immunity” on everything related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. And that argument was … he was trying to overturn an election. So it’s all good.
“Remember,” wrote Trump, “I was not campaigning—The 2020 Election was LONG OVER.” In his opinion, because the vote had already been totaled up to show that he lost, Trump’s efforts to change that outcome should not be subject to prosecution. In fact, it was his “duty” to attempt to overthrow democracy, and if he hadn’t it would have violated his oath of office.
Seriously. That’s his argument. Trump didn’t desperately cling to power in a multiweek scheme that ended in an ugly and violent insurrection to help himself. He did it for you, America.
Trump’s explanation of why he is above, beside, or generally beyond the law came as part of a three-“page” post. Three pages because after all this time, Trump still seems to have trouble understanding how threads work. The first “page” was devoted to a new chock-full-o’-nonsense “report,” which Trump says was “compiled by the most highly qualified Election Experts in the Country” to show that he won every swing state. So there.
But it’s on page two when he gets around to explaining why special counsel Jack Smith and every other justice official in the nation can go pound sand.
Image large, center https://images.dailykos.com/images/1261256/large/Trump-Page2.png?1704306897 Caption: “Page Two” of Trump’s immunity defense
Here are a few of the ways Trump brought that light. His oath apparently required that he:
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Place a “perfect call” to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to explain exactly how much cheating he needed in that state and how bad it would be for Raffensperger if Trump didn’t get what he wanted.
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Beg local officials in Michigan to block thousands of votes in the majority-Black city of Detroit from being recorded, and follow up by repeatedly lying about results in that state.
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Recruit fake electors in Wisconsin.
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Recruit fake electors in Michigan.
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Recruit fake electors in Arizona.
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Recruit fake electors in Georgia.
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Recruit fake electors in Nevada.
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Ludicrously recruit fake electors in New Mexico, even though Biden won the state by nearly 11 percentage points and 100,000 votes.
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Engage in a conspiracy against the United States to “overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by using knowingly false claims of election fraud.”
Also, there was that little thing about constantly encouraging violence and feeding a false narrative that led thousands of people to attack the police, smash their way into the U.S. Capitol, share their feces with the nation, and threaten to hang assorted public officials. Trump gets a pass for that.
According to Trump, all these things might have been issues before the election, but because he was trying to overturn an election after it took place, all is fair. It’s not campaigning when it’s too late to campaign.
Which seems to suggest that anything is legal if the person in power wants to remain in power. However, Trump is likely to find that this line of argument works only for successful coups.
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