Source: Anna Moneymaker / Getty
“I don’t know” answers concerning upholding the U.S. Constitution alarmed many on social media.
In
nearly four months of the second presidential administration of Donald Trump, many of his executive orders have run afoul of what is outlawed by the U.S. Constitution. And in a recent interview with NBC’s Kristin Welker, Trump pointedly avoided
answering questions about upholding the Constitution – which a president is sworn to do.
In the interview on
Meet The Press which aired Sunday (May 4), Welker asked President Trump about the recent cases of deportation including that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was sent to a prison in El Salvador along with others without due process. That move is in violation of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. “Do you agree that everyone who is here deserves due process? Citizens and noncitizens?”, Welker asked, to which Trump replied, “I don’t know. I’m not a lawyer.”
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“The 5th amendment says as much.. Don’t you need to uphold the constitution?”, Welker responded. “I don’t know,” Trump said, adding: “It might say that, but if you’re talking about that, then we’d have to have a million, or two million, or three million trials. We have thousands of people that are some murderers, and some drug dealers, and some of the worst people on earth…I was elected to get them the hell out of here, and the courts are holding me from doing it.”
He contiued: “I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said. What you said is not what I heard the Supreme Court said. They have a different interpretation.”
Welker asked if he listened to concerns that he’s steering the nation into an authoritarian regime, Trump brushed it aside. “Those people are going to be very happy,” he said. “They’re going to have to see some results.”
His responses regarding the Constitution were met on social media with anger and calls for him to be impeached or removed, citing the 25th Amendment. One user named Jay in a post on X, formerly Twitter, wrote: “I’m 1000% sure Trump has never read the constitution. And if he did he’s too stupid to understand it.”
