Trump Says Former Leaders Should Be Above the Law

Donald Trump recently told two conservative radio hosts on their show that he believes former presidents should be “protected” from prosecution or legal accountability, “unless you’re in a banana republic.”

In any other political context, this explicit statement from a former president/future president wannabe—which demands that a small number of politicians be granted absolute legal immunity even after they leave office—would be met with widespread condemnation.

It stinks of monarchy. And, to whatever extent this matters, conservatives’ beloved Founding Fathers preferred a constitutional democratic republic to living under the whims of a “divinely” anointed sovereign.

But as a former head of state, the self-serving Trump clearly believes he should be above the law, and few elected Republicans will dare repudiate that claim.

But what of Trump’s other claim? That only banana republicans hold former leaders accountable.

It’s not true.

Since 2000, at least 78 countries have prosecuted or jailed former leaders—including in France, Israel, and South Korea. Political scientists and democratic experts assert that holding leaders legally accountable for their crimes is, in fact, a symptom of a healthy society.

Because the alternative would be to grant Trump’s wish and make a certain group of people above the law forever. And no one—Republican or Democrat, progressive or conservative—should ever be afforded such a concession.

Leaders like U.S. Presidents are already afforded enormous considerations while in office. The Supreme Court holds that Presidents are immune from lawsuits pertaining to actions undertaken in the scope of their office. The Justice Department maintains a sitting President can’t be indicted for any crime while in office.

Petty thugs like Trump want the right to behave with impunity and cower behind an imaginary perpetual sovereign immunity. It must never be entertained.

And for what it’s worth: while in office, Trump wanted to prosecute former president Barack Obama.

So it’s fair to say that what Trump really wants is absolute, perpetual sovereign immunity for just one former president: himself.