'We don't have kings in America': Conservatives bash Trump's 'total immunity' claims

Former President Donald Trump's latest Truth Social rant about having "total immunity" from prosecution even if his actions "cross the line" into criminality is drawing fire from some conservative critics.

In an all-caps 2 a.m. Truth Social post, the twice-impeached, four-time-indicted former president declared that "EVEN EVENTS THAT 'CROSS THE LINE' MUST FALL UNDER TOTAL IMMUNITY, OR IT WILL BE YEARS OF TRAUMA TRYING TO DETERMINE GOOD FROM BAD."

Many conservatives, not all of whom are of the "Never Trump" variety, were quick to slam Trump for essentially declaring presidents should be treated like kings.

"Presidents are employees of the American people," argued conservative commentator AG Hamilton. They are entrusted with certain powers, but the idea that they should be immune from any accountability is absurd. We don’t have kings in America."

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Pradheep J. Shanker, a regular contributor to the National Review, wrote that Trump may not have fully thought through the implications of his new legal theory.

"The best part about this is that Biden could arrest Trump tomorrow, and TRUMP HIMSELF says that Biden can't be touched," he noted.

Reason's Jesse Walker also wondered whether Trump understood that his "presidents-must-be-immune-from-prosecution" take also applied to President Joe Biden.

"People say bipartisanship is dead, but here's Donald Trump declaring that Joe Biden should have full immunity for any crime he commits in office," Walker joked. "And it's in all-caps, so it's, like, SUPER-constitutional."

The National Review's Noah Rothman, meanwhile, predicted that the political implications of nominating Trump when he regularly makes these kinds of statements would be bad for Republicans.

"Hope you're all excited to make a big, embarrassing spectacle of yourselves for the next 11 months," he wrote.

A similar argument was made by Townhall.com's Guy Benson, who argued that "a campaign dominated by this stuff seems not great!"