> That seems like it's in the "suicide pact" column of rights defense Not if you consider the nature of a public official. It's not that Trump is The President

> That seems like it's in the "suicide pact" column of rights defense Not if you consider the nature of a public official. It's not that Trump is The President, he's A President - one of many in a line stretching back to George Washington and hopefully, stretching forward for millennia to come. There's nothing singular or unique about his occupation of that office (well, hopefully you get my meaning there). As such, he should be expected to behave by the laws governing the office, not the laws governing the individual in the office. It would be different if he were a king, whose rights and powers supposedly descend from God (at least in European tradition). First, he would be making the laws up, possibly from the whole cloth, and second, a king, by divine right, is answerable to none but himself and God.