American historian and expert on authoritarianism Ruth Ben-Ghiat said Donald Trump's MAGA movement had won by getting the former president's immunity hearing before the Supreme Court — no matter how the justices rule.
Taking to social media, she wrote, "Whatever the Court does, having this case heard and the idea of having immunity for a military coup taken seriously by being debated is a big victory in the information war that MAGA and allies wage alongside legal battles. Authoritarians specialize in normalizing extreme."
She was responding after the justices questioned Trump's lawyer, including queries from Justice Elena Kagan to the attorney, John Sauer, about whether staging a military coup would be considered an official act as president since he is considered the "commander and chief" of the U.S. military.
"I think that, as the chief justice pointed out earlier, where there's a whole series of, you know, sort of guidelines against that, so to speak, like the [Uniform Code of Military Justice] prohibits the military from following an unlawful act," said Sauer.
" ... That may well be an official act, and he would have to be — as I will say in response to all of these kinds of hypotheticals has to be impeached and convicted before he can be criminally prosecuted."
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Kagan interrupted him to ask about an ex-president who was voted out and staged a military coup, and lost.
"He couldn't be impeached, but he ordered the military to stage a coup, and you're saying that's an official act?" Kagan asked.
Trump's lawyer claimed it would depend on the "circumstances," which Kagan also challenged. Sauer tried to claim the perpetrator needed to be impeached first, though Kagan again said that couldn't happen if he's no longer in office.
