By Mark Sumner for Daily Kos
Daily Kos Staff
REPUBLISHED BY:
Donald Trump has two big cases headed to the Supreme Court. Last week, the court agreed to hear Trump’s challenge to the Colorado Supreme Court ruling determining that he is ineligible to run for president based on his support for an insurrection. Arguments in the case will be heard by the court on Feb. 8.
Also to be decided over the next few weeks is Trump’s claim of “total immunity” for any act he took to overturn the 2020 election. A Washington, D.C., appeals court panel will hear Trump’s argument on Tuesday. No matter how they rule, the decision is almost certain to be immediately appealed to the Supreme Court. The decision on this issue is critical to both the federal case scheduled for March in Washington, D.C., and the state case in Fulton County, Georgia.
As the court prepares to make decisions that may determine whether Trump can run for office in 2024, and whether he could be making his final pitch from jail, he appears to be conducting a three-step campaign for the votes of conservative justices: 1) You owe me, 2) my followers will be very upset if you vote against me, and 3) if you allow me to be indicted for things that are clearly not presidential responsibilities, I’ll indict President Joe Biden for actions that absolutely are.
The first part of Trump’s campaign is simple: The conservative justices that he appointed owe him for their black robes and should vote as Trump wants to show their loyalty. Trump attorney Alina Habba made that pitch last week as she singled out Justice Brett Kavanaugh, claimed that Trump “went through hell” to get him onto the court, and said that Kavanaugh would “step up” to restore Trump to the Colorado ballot.
On Friday, Trump reminded the justices that there would be “big, big trouble” if they don’t give him what Trump called “fair treatment” in the Colorado case. As The Hill reports, he also used that occasion to argue that justices shouldn’t be concerned about the damage to the court’s reputation should they give in to what Trump wants.
“They’re saying, ‘Oh, Trump owns the Supreme Court, he owns it. He owns it. If they make a decision for him, it will be terrible. It’ll ruin their reputations,’” Trump said. “‘He owns the Supreme Court. He put on three judges. He owns the Supreme Court. If they rule in his favor, it will be horrible for them. And we’ll protest at their houses.’”
Trump doesn’t say who has made such claims, or who has said they will protest at the homes of Supreme Court justices. But by creating this strawman, he is seemingly trying to negate the pressure of his own statements—and the death threats currently being delivered to members of the Colorado court by Trump supporters—and give the justices an out for ruling his way. That Trump made this statement on the eve of the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection seems like a none-too-subtle reminder of just what kind of “big trouble” his followers can bring. Every threat Trump has made against every judge who ever ruled against him can also be seen as a part of this pressure campaign.
Put this together, and it looks like a message of, “You owe me. You’ll be in trouble if you go against me. And don’t worry about your reputation, we can always blame the other guys.”
But there’s one other key piece to Trump’s argument, especially when it comes to total immunity. That part of Trump’s campaign to the court comes within this post on his social media platform Friday night.
At first glance, Trump's threatening to go after Biden is nothing new. After all, he has made revenge and retribution the theme of his campaign. The plan to persecute opponents if Trump is restored to power is well underway.
But it’s the details that count in this case.
In his post, Trump isn’t making some claim that Biden took money from China (like Trump), or even that Biden made a profit from his son’s business. Trump claims he would indict Biden over the results of America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and over increased immigrant interceptions at the border. The reason this is important is that actions connected to the two things Trump cites are clearly within Biden’s responsibilities as president.
One of the biggest factors in the decision regarding Trump’s claim of total immunity on events related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election is Trump’s claim that this was all within the presidential role. He’s made that claim repeatedly, insisting that his efforts to pressure state and local officials, appoint fake electors, and incite violence from his supporters was all part of his responsibility to ensure free and fair elections.
Now Trump is apparently underlining this for the court. What his latest post seems to say is that if they rule against him, he’ll indict Biden over policy differences. Or for any action that failed to clear whatever high bar Trump chooses to raise. That Trump is declaring he will openly weaponize the Department of Justice and instruct his attorney general on who to prosecute should also be shocking … but isn’t.
So, in addition to reminding justices that they owe him their positions and making it clear that ruling against him would not be the best idea for their health, Trump is informing them that should they not grant him immunity for doing things that aren’t part of the presidential role, he’ll get retribution over things that definitely are.
The last point is particularly noxious because it represents exactly the way Supreme Court conservatives could weasel their way into supporting his immunity plea. They don’t have to say that he can do anything. They just have to declare that Trump’s attempted coup was part of the job.
Add on a few nods to Trump’s claims that imaginary people on the left were just as blatant in their threats, and they can all go off to their next luxury retreat without the slightest concern about their reputations. Not that they have any such concerns.
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