Authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat suggested that the Supreme Court’s decision, in Donald Trump’s favor, to grant presidents total immunity for official acts is effectively the “autocrat’s fantasy.”
She said on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House” on Monday, “Authoritarianism, at root, is about taking rights away from the many — that’s Dobbs, and there’s also voting rights that come into play — and allowing the few, the cronies, the oligarchs, the leader, most of all, to have no checks or fewer regulations on their lawlessness.”
She continued, “So it’s about transforming the rule of law into ‘rule by the lawless.’ And so removing immunity from the head of state is the autocrat’s fantasy. It’s why Trump admires Xi Jinping and [Vladimir] Putin and all those autocrats, because that’s his fantasy, because he is so corrupt.”
Ben-Ghiat called Monday’s 6-3 decision “unspeakable.”
She added, “It’s the product of these far-right activists who are using the court to, you know, destroy democracy from within.”
The court’s six conservative justices agreed, in the ruling, that Trump is immune from prosecution for official acts undertaken during his presidency.
Lower courts will now need to decide what constitutes an official act, effectively ending the chances of Trump’s federal election conspiracy case going to trial before the November election.
Should Trump win, he could order the Justice Department to drop the case and another federal case against him.
See Ben-Ghiat’s commentary on MSNBC below.
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