Donald Trump warned that Joe Biden and his family could face multiple criminal charges when he leaves office unless the U.S. Supreme Court grants Trump immunity from his own legal battles with the criminal justice system.
In a rapturous interview with Time MagazineTrump painted a startling picture of his second term, from how he would control the justice department to suggesting he could allow states to monitor pregnant women to enforce abortion laws.
Related: Trump’s Secret Trial Enters Third Week: Here’s What’s Happened So Far
Trump made the threat against the Biden family in an interview with Time’s Eric Cortellessa, in which he shared the contours of what the magazine called “an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world.”
Trump made a direct connection between his threat to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Bidens if he were re-elected in November with the case currently before the Supreme Court over his own presidential immunity.
Asked if he intends to “go after” the Bidens if he wins a second term in the White House, Trump replied: “It depends on what happens with the Supreme Court.”
If the high court’s nine justices — three of whom were appointed by Trump — do not grant him immunity from prosecution, Trump said, “then Biden, I am sure, will be prosecuted for all of his crimes, because he has committed many crimes.”
Trump and his Republican supporters have long tried to link Biden to criminal wrongdoing related to his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings, without unearthing any substantial evidence. Last June, in comments made at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump threatened appoint a special prosecutor if reelected “to pursue the most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America, Joe Biden, and the entire Biden crime family.”
Trump himself is currently in the midst of four active lawsuits, one of which is currently on trial in New York. He is accused of election interference in 2016, linked to secret payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels.
Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Trump v USA, in which the former president argued for broad immunity from prosecution for former presidents, including himself. It seemed unlikely that the judges would fully grant his request, although they seemed willing to consider some degree of immunity for acts carried out within the scope of official presidential functions.
Several of Trump’s comments in the Time interview will raise alarm bells among those worried about the former president’s increasingly totalitarian streak.
Trump’s remarks raise the specter that, if granted a second presidential term, he would use the Justice Department as a weapon to exact revenge on the Democratic rival who defeated him in 2020.
Despite the violence that erupted on January 6, 2021 at the US Capitol, after he refused to accept defeat in the 2020 elections, which are the subject of one of the two federal lawsuits he is fighting, Trump also refused to promise a peaceful transfer of power if he loses again in November.
Asked by Cortellessa if there would be political violence if Trump failed to win, he responded: “If we don’t win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election.”
Adding even more fuel to the fire, Trump not only repeated the falsehood that the 2020 election had been stolen from him, but said he would be unlikely to nominate anyone for a second Trump administration who believed Biden had legitimately prevailed four years ago. “I wouldn’t feel good about that, because I think anyone who doesn’t see that that election was stolen — you look at the proof,” he said.
Overall, the interview conveys the image of a second Trump presidency, in which the occupant of the Oval Office would be determined to exercise executive power unfettered by any historical norms or respect for long-accepted borders.
His plans to dominate the Justice Department would see him pardon most of the more than 800 people who were convicted of the January 6 riots and summarily fire any US attorney who disobeyed his instructions.
On abortion, he said that all decision-making power over reproductive rights was handed over to the states after the Supreme Court’s nullification of the right to termination in Roe v Wade. He said he might consider Republican states putting pregnant women under surveillance to monitor whether they get abortions beyond the state’s designated ban.
“I think they can do it,” Trump said.
Some of his most fearsome policies for a possible Trump 47 presidency concern immigration. He told Time that one of his first priorities would be to initiate a mass deportation of millions of undocumented people.
To achieve this historically unprecedented goal, he would be prepared to mobilize the US army and national guard to secure the border and to carry out massive sweeps of potential deportees. He said he would not rule out building new migrant detention camps to house those slated for removal, although most deportations would occur instantly.
