Still no royalty in U.S.

On Tuesday, a federal appeals court ruled conclusively that Donald Trump’s attempts to stage a coup against the United States while president are not above the law.

That it needed to be said is incredible. The decision takes the wind out of the sails of any remaining argument that Trump’s federal criminal trial should not expeditiously take place.

As the three judges ruled: “Former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant. But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as president no longer protects him against this prosecution.”

The idea that Special Counsel Jack Smith is pursuing some sort of strained political hit job, targeting Trump because he’s the likely Republican nominee and not because he flagrantly committed heinous offenses, is ludicrous. We all watched—some horrified, some elated—as Trump whipped up his sycophants to storm the Capitol.

If anything, the system continuing to work in a way that anyone trusts—which is, at base, the thing that undergirds our ability to have a society at all—absolutely requires that the prosecution move forward.

The delays, the complaining, the procedural sleight of hand—it’s all an effort to run out the clock because he is well aware that after decades of grift and bluster and steamrolling decency and the rule of law, his luck is running out.

Republican policymakers and officials who’ve adopted the mealy-mouthed position that they won’t support Trump if he’s convicted are banking on the same.

They don’t intend to let due process play out because they don’t believe Trump should face it, that he’s simply above the law and should take his place as America’s autocrat. They must be proven wrong.