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To the editor:
Donald Trump is still trying an immunity defense as a reason he should be excused from trial for his many crimes. Now, I've already explained how an immunity challenge is not a declaration that the crimes in question didn't happen but is rather an assertion that even though they are crimes, and he probably (certainly) did what he is accused of, he has a get-out-of-jail-free card built into the Constitution. However, this would rely on the Founders basing their ideas on an empirical concept known as the divine right of kings.
Put bluntly, the claim has no legs. After all, George Washington himself famously said, "It is important … that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective Constitutional Spheres; avoiding in the exercise of the Powers of one department to encroach upon another." In other words, "No branch of government should have absolute authority superseding the law of the land."
This Washington learned from studying the lessons of history, specifically Roman and British history. English kings had long assumed the role of regent, i.e. kingship, approved by the church itself. King George was considered regent of all the British empire with power divested on authority of God. Any edict elicited from his possibly syphilitic mind was, by law, the very word of Jehovah himself so far as the subjects of the empire (including the American Colonies) were concerned.
The fear that this could become the experience of the American people wasn't lost on GW. History's replete with examples of monarchs, emperors, czars and crowned consorts abusing power they felt had been granted to them by the heavens.
For example, Roman Emperor Caligula (who succeeded the lecherous Tiberius, declared himself the personification of Zeus, married his own sister whom he renamed Hera, and more-or-less mastered the concept of bread-and-circuses) was murdered just as his forebear, Julius Caesar, was by members of the Senate in order to purge the concept of emperor and to restore the republic. Only for the Praetorian Guard, to keep their cushy jobs, to then replace him with a stooge member of the royal family and proceed to murder the Senate upstarts. It would be another three and a half centuries before anyone dared speak of restoring the republic again.
Now imagine a president with the authority to wield unlimited power, and the looming fate of any Congress who would dare attempt an impeachment. The idea is folly. Heck, even Nixon and Ford realized this, or the former would not have had to resign, and the latter would not have granted the former a pardon.
Trump has no immunity. Trump is not being unfairly targeted, and he knows it. And Trump should never be elected to high office again. This recognition does not come from a hatred of Trump. It comes from the same reading of history that guided George Washington. It's the only conclusion any true patriot and lover of America's traditions can come to.
J. David Core
Toronto