By Don Terry | Monday, August 25, 2025 | 6 min read
The Supreme Court’s recent decision granting sweeping immunity to presidents has not only redrawn the boundaries of executive power, it has exposed a dangerous new frontier: the possibility that Donald Trump—or any president who follows him—could use investigative powers to intimidate, punish, or even remove those who stand in his way. And no figure better embodies that threat than Justice Clarence Thomas, whose own financial dealings have already drawn scrutiny.
Thomas has long faced questions about ethics, gifts, and money. Reports have shown that he accepted lavish vacations, luxury travel, and even financial assistance for family members, much of it undisclosed. More recently, journalists uncovered details about his mother’s home, purchased and renovated by one of his wealthy benefactors. Layered onto that are murky mortgage arrangements that raise eyebrows about disclosure, propriety, and potential misrepresentation. Alone, these facts already cast a shadow over his integrity. But under the new immunity framework, they could also become weapons.
Trump, in his characteristically diabolical way, has demonstrated before how easy it is to wield the specter of investigation as a political tool. We saw this when he tried to coerce Ukraine into announcing an inquiry into Joe Biden. The plan was not to unearth actual wrongdoing but to stain Biden with the mere appearance of scandal. The power was in the suggestion. A single headline—Biden Under Investigation—would have been enough to seed doubt, weaken him in the public eye, and tilt the political battlefield. Now imagine the same playbook applied to the Supreme Court.
If Trump wanted Thomas—or any justice—to step down so he could appoint a more radical loyalist, he wouldn’t necessarily need proof of criminality. He wouldn’t need to pursue a lengthy trial or wait for conviction. All he would need is the gossip of an investigation, strategically leaked to the press. A rumor that Thomas is under federal scrutiny for mortgage fraud or financial misrepresentation could be devastating. The legitimacy of a justice depends on public confidence. Even the hint of corruption erodes that confidence. A president willing to exploit immunity could turn rumor into a weapon sharp enough to bend the Court to his will.
This is not far-fetched. The incentives are already in place. Trump has made no secret of his hostility toward institutions that resist him. He has repeatedly used the Department of Justice as a political bludgeon, demanding investigations into rivals while attacking prosecutors and judges who scrutinize him. He understands the power of spectacle, the way perception can substitute for reality. And with immunity as his shield, there would be little to stop him from resurrecting the Ukraine tactic on domestic soil—except this time, aimed squarely at the judiciary.
The Supreme Court justices themselves must recognize the peril. By granting Trump this extraordinary immunity, they have handed him the tools to threaten them. A president who can dangle investigations without consequence is a president who can remind each justice: veer off course, and your mortgage might be next. It is a subtle but chilling form of coercion. Even if no charges are ever filed, even if no indictment follows, the cloud of suspicion can hang heavy enough to pressure a resignation or to push a wavering vote in the president’s favor.
Consider how corrosive this would be to democracy. The judiciary is supposed to be insulated from politics, yet history shows that even the Supreme Court is not immune from human frailty. Justices, like anyone else, have mortgages, families, reputations, and vulnerabilities. A president armed with the power of immunity, and willing to weaponize those vulnerabilities, can turn an independent branch of government into an instrument of fear.
And Thomas is the perfect cautionary tale. His ethical lapses have already been documented. His financial entanglements are real, not speculative. If a president wanted to signal to the Court that no one is untouchable, Thomas’s mortgage history offers fertile ground. The strategy wouldn’t even need to succeed in court. It would only need to succeed in headlines. Once public trust erodes, resignation becomes plausible. Once resignation occurs, the door opens to replacement. And replacements, in Trump’s case, would almost certainly be handpicked loyalists, far more radical and far less constrained by precedent than even Thomas himself.
This is how institutional capture works—not through sweeping constitutional amendments or overt coups, but through quiet intimidation and strategic rumor. What Trump attempted with Ukraine can easily be repurposed against the judiciary. And because the Court has now insulated him with immunity, the very justices who enabled this power may soon find themselves its targets.
The broader danger is bipartisan. Today, it may be Trump. Tomorrow, it could be another president, equally ambitious but more disciplined and less flamboyant. Once the precedent is set that presidents cannot be held criminally accountable for “official acts,” the incentive to use those acts for personal or political gain grows exponentially. Financial investigations, mortgage records, tax histories—these are tools that can be deployed against judges, lawmakers, journalists, or anyone who dares to stand in the way.
Americans must see this for what it is: not an abstract debate about constitutional theory, but a very real risk to the integrity of democracy. When courts, Congress, and the press can be cowed into submission by the threat of investigation, checks and balances collapse. Justice becomes politicized theater. And ordinary citizens are left with a government where the rule of law is not applied equally, but wielded selectively, against enemies and rivals.
Trump has already written the script. The Ukraine affair was Act One. The immunity ruling sets the stage for Act Two. Justice Thomas, with his mortgages and money trails, could become the first casualty—or the first example—of what happens when power is unchecked. The warning is clear: by shielding presidents from accountability, the Supreme Court has invited abuse. And the very justices who handed Trump this weapon may soon find themselves staring down its barrel.
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