Trump’s dangerous claims

Donald Trump was in federal court Wednesday as his lawyers laid out his preposterous argument that presidents are immune from federal prosecution for actions taken in office unless impeached and convicted in the Senate. Whatever the three-judge appeals panel decides, the case will most likely end up before the Supreme Court, which must reject this ridiculous notion.

A detail here that’s easy to overlook is that Trump’s legal claim rests on the premise that whatever Trump could have immunity to do, Joe Biden could, too. That he feels comfortable explicitly stating this in court counteracts all the bluster about some supposed Biden plot to use the federal government against Trump.

This thinking has always been one of Trump’s most useful attributes: He’ll do what others won’t, broach any legal and ethical constraints and plow ahead, staring down anyone in a position to hold him accountable, daring them to stop him. For the most part, they haven’t.

Trump has based huge amounts of his phony business empire on fraud, obfuscation, nonpayment of contractors and playing chicken with the banks, threatening default and going bankrupt, and paying little to no taxes. He just kept getting away with it. Being told “no” by the voters in 2020 was such a shock that he simply refused to accept it and tried mightily to overturn their choice.

It’s already clear that the erratic author of the first serious rebellion in a century and a half will be even more unchained in a second term, and he’s been candid about his desire to punish and subjugate all his real and perceived opponents and wave off any legal or constitutional limitations.