Trump doubles down on 'total immunity' claims, Haley pushes back

Donald Trump is doubling down on his claims of «complete and total» presidential immunity as he awaits a decision from an appeals court on his effort to have his federal election interference case dismissed.

Trump, appearing to go further than before, wrote on his social media platform on Thursday, in all caps, that even “events that ‘cross the line’ must fall under total immunity” or else there would be “years of trauma trying to determine good from bad.”

Later that day, during an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump continued to make his case — unprompted.

Hannity asked Trump to deliver a closing message to New Hampshire voters, who will cast their ballots in the GOP primary on Tuesday.

The former president briefly responded that his message is «Make America Great Again» and then launched into remarks on his legal troubles.

«If a president is afraid to act because they're worried about being indicted when they leave office — a president of the United States has to have immunity. And the Supreme Court's going to be ruling on that,» he said. «If they don't have immunity, no president is going to act. You're gonna have guys that just sit in office and are afraid to do anything.”

Constitutional scholar Michael Gerhardt, a law professor at University of Chapel Hill, expressed deep skepticism about Trump's claim that he is entitled to total immunity from criminal prosecution.

»I would describe it as a dangerously bad argument," Gerhardt told ABC News. «It contradicts nearly everything we know about the Constitution and the intent of the framers.»

Gerhardt continued, «It would be an argument that might make sense if the president were king, but he's not king.»

Trump's latest comments also received pushback from one of his