The Immunity Paradox

Thomas Singer

The Supreme Court is calling for a legal distinction between public and private actions with regard to extending Presidential immunity when it seems abundantly clear that Mr. Trump himself is not capable of such distinctions.   When it comes to Presidential immunity it makes absolute sense to differentiate official core functions from personal actions of the Presidency.  It might even be considered common sense.  But, what truly muddies the waters in the application of that principle in the context of Mr. Trump's tenure as President is that Mr. Trump himself has shown himself to be constitutionally incapable of making such distinctions.  His constant blurring and confusing of boundaries between public and private, official and personal has marked every aspect of his Presidency.  Mr. Trump never seemed to know when he was acting as President of the United States and when he was acting in his personal, private self interest because in his own psyche they were in fact indistinguishable from one another.  Mr. Trump may truly believe that he is America and that he is what will make America Great Again.  He is totally identified with his self-appointed role as a great man, perhaps equal to the greatest men that have ever lived such as Nelson Mandela or Jesus Christ.  So how do you apply the well-intended principle of differentiating the public and private arenas  with regard to immunity when the very subject of that concern is incapable of drawing such boundaries himself.  In fact, part of Trump’s media savvy genius is to blur boundaries such that the transactions that get him into trouble in his private life (women and  fraudulent  business transactions) have become part of the arsenal he uses to defend himself in his public life and role.  He has so mixed things up that even the notion of public and private seem simple minded and archaic in Mr. Trump’s case.  The Supreme Court itself seems to have failed to recognize that the subject about whom Presidential immunity is being adjudicated is incapable of making the very distinctions that it is calling for.  What a paradox!!  The Supreme Court appears to be establishing hypothetical boundaries for the future that apply in questions of Presidential immunity when, in the present case about which Justices on the Supreme Court intentionally expressed little curiosity, Mr. Trump has violated just about every boundary between public and private, official and personal, that exists.

Thomas Singer, MD is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, who has edited Cultural Complexes and the Soul of America and has contributed to The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.