Alexander Hamilton rejects Trump’s lie that the founders want him to get immunity

Trump claimed on Saturday that the Founders wanted to give him immunity, but Alexander Hamilton wrote the opposite in The Federalist Papers.

Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Without presidential immunity, the presidency will lose its power and prestige, and under some leaders, no power at all. The presidency will be swallowed up by the other branches of government. THAT IS NOT WHAT OUR FOUNDERS WANT.”

Trump’s claim is absolutely nonsense.

The Founders made their vision of executive power and its limits very clear.

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In Federalist 69, Alexander Hamilton wrote to contrast the power of the presidency with that of a king or a despot:

The President of the United States would be a popularly elected officer for FOUR years; the King of Great Britain is a perpetual and HEREDITARY prince. One would be liable to personal punishment and disgrace; the person of the other is sacred and inviolable. One would have a QUALIFIED negative opinion of the actions of the legislative body; the other has an ABSOLUTE negative. One would have the right to command the military and naval forces of the nation; the other possesses, in addition to this right, the right to DECLARE war, and to raise and regulate fleets and armies by his own authority. One would have a concurrent power with a branch of the legislature in making treaties; the other is the SOLE OWNERS of the power to make treaties. One would have similar authority in appointing positions; the other is the sole author of all agreements.

One cannot grant any privilege; the other can make inhabitants of aliens, noblemen of ordinary people; can establish companies with all the rights that belong to legal entities. One man cannot prescribe rules concerning the commerce or currency of the nation; the other is in various respects the arbiter of commerce, and in this capacity may establish markets and exchanges, regulate weights and measures, impose embargoes for a limited time, coin money, authorize or prohibit the circulation of foreign coin. One has not an ounce of spiritual jurisdiction; the other is the supreme head and governor of the national church! What answer shall we give to those who would convince us that things so different are alike? The same should be given to those who tell us that a government, the entire power of which would be in the hands of the elected and periodical servants of the people, is an aristocracy, a monarchy, and a despotism.

The founders designed a system in which the president is not king. The fact is that a president does not have absolute or unlimited power without any responsibility.

Reading the Founders’ words emphasizes Trump’s claim of Supreme Court immunity.

Donald Trump did not have unlimited immunity as president, and as a former president he does not have unlimited immunity either.

Hamilton wrote that presidents are not aristocrats, monarchs, or despots.

Presidential power is limited, and no president, no matter how much he wants to be, is above the law.

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