Trump claimed on Saturday that the Founders wanted him to have immunity, but Alexander Hamilton wrote the opposite in The Federalist Papers.
Trump posted on Truth Social, “Without Presidential Immunity, the Presidency will lose its power and prestige, and under some Leaders, have no power at all. The Presidency will be consumed by the other Branches of Government. THAT IS NOT WHAT OUR FOUNDERS WANTED.”
Trump’s claim is absolute gibberish.
The Founders made their view of executive power and its limits very clear.
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In Federalist 69, Alexander Hamilton wrote to contrast the power of the presidency with that of a king or a despot:
The President of the United States would be an officer elected by the people for FOUR years; the king of Great Britain is a perpetual and HEREDITARY prince. The one would be amenable to personal punishment and disgrace; the person of the other is sacred and inviolable. The one would have a QUALIFIED negative upon the acts of the legislative body; the other has an ABSOLUTE negative. The one would have a right to command the military and naval forces of the nation; the other, in addition to this right, possesses that of DECLARING war, and of RAISING and REGULATING fleets and armies by his own authority. The one would have a concurrent power with a branch of the legislature in the formation of treaties; the other is the SOLE POSSESSOR of the power of making treaties. The one would have a like concurrent authority in appointing to offices; the other is the sole author of all appointments.
The one can confer no privileges whatever; the other can make denizens of aliens, noblemen of commoners; can erect corporations with all the rights incident to corporate bodies. The one can prescribe no rules concerning the commerce or currency of the nation; the other is in several respects the arbiter of commerce, and in this capacity can establish markets and fairs, can regulate weights and measures, can lay embargoes for a limited time, can coin money, can authorize or prohibit the circulation of foreign coin. The one has no particle of spiritual jurisdiction; the other is the supreme head and governor of the national church! What answer shall we give to those who would persuade us that things so unlike resemble each other? The same that ought to be given to those who tell us that a government, the whole power of which would be in the hands of the elective and periodical servants of the people, is an aristocracy, a monarchy, and a despotism.
The Founders designed a system where the president is not a king. By design, a president does not have absolute or unlimited power with zero accountability.
Reading the words of the Founders highlights the Supreme Court hearing Trump’s claim of immunity.
Donald Trump did not have unlimited immunity as president, and he does not have unlimited immunity as an ex-president.
Hamilton wrote that presidents are not aristocrats, monarchs, or despots.
Presidential power is limited, and no president, no matter how much they want to be, is above the law.
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