At the same time that Trump is asserting that he is absolutely immune from prosecution for criminal acts while in office, he is threatening to put Joe Biden and members of his family in jail on the campaign trail. How do we reconcile these two ideas?
You could argue, of course, that absolute immunity applies to actions taken by the president while in office, but not the VP. That would suggest that the president is sovereign–an American king–while the VP is not. Since the office of VP is also referenced specifically in the Constitution, it is difficult to make a persuasive argument out of that.
If Trump is right, Biden couldn’t be prosecuted for attempting a coup if he loses the election unless he is impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate. He couldn’t even be prosecuted if he orders the military to shoot . . . Donald Trump! Does Trump really mean that? Of course not!
In reality, what Trump is actually saying is that the law doesn’t apply to him. Immunity is purely personal. But we already knew that, didn’t we?