It’s a tired exercise to imagine how Republicans might react if Barack Obama or Joe Biden was guilty of any of the gaffes Donald Trump commits on a daily basis — but imagine for a second how conservatives would react if Obama or Biden had been asked during a high-profile interview whether they feel it’s their duty as president to uphold the Constitution, and they responded, “I don’t know.”
Such is how Trump responded on Sunday when Kristen Welker of NBC News pressed him on his administration’s refusal to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia — a Maryland man the administration deported without due process — back from El Salvador, including after the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that the administration must “facilitate” his return. Trump has largely tried to wash his hands of anything to do with the situation, repeatedly saying it’s up to his lawyers, which is how he describes the Justice Department.
“Don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States, as president?” Welker asked Trump after he pleaded ignorance about whether everyone in America has a right to due process, a constitutional right.
“I don’t know,” Trump replied. “I have to respond by saying again that I have brilliant lawyers that work for me. 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.”
Regardless of any alternate “interpretations” of the Supreme Court’s ruling — which several federal courts have excoriated the administration for failing to honor — it’s hard to think of an easier question for a president to answer than whether they should uphold the Constitution, which Trump pledged to preserve, protect, and defend as part of his swearing-in ceremony.
Trump didn’t say, “Yes, however,” or, “Of course, but in this case,” or some other hedge. He said, “I don’t know” — about upholding the nation’s founding document, one that conservatives hold so dear that Trump included it in the Bible he’s selling with country star Lee Greenwood. Now, he’s saying the Constitution is only important so long as it doesn’t interfere with his political goals.
Trump later on Sunday posted his intention to reopen Alcatraz and an inscrutable call to place tariffs on foreign films. These absurd directives garnered more media attention than the president shrugging at the importance of the Constitution.
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Republicans have largely avoided the issue. Rolling Stone reached out to all 53 Republican senators asking for comment, and didn’t receive a response from a single one of them. The only Republican who seemed to criticize Trump’s comments is Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who posted on Monday, “Following the Constitution is not a suggestion. It is a guiding force for all of us who work on behalf of the American people. Do you agree?”
The Republicans who have been asked about Trump’s dismissal of the Constitution have largely responded by defending Trump. “Look, I think the president knows he needs to uphold the Constitution,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) told CNN.
Does he, though? It really, really seems like he doesn’t. He’s taken countless blatantly unconstitutional actions since taking office. He recently told Time that he wouldn’t “100-percent” agree that the United States should be ruled by laws, not men. He constantly muses about being “king” and staying in office beyond his constitutionally mandated term limit. What evidence is there that Trump cares one iota about upholding the Constitution?
Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) responded similarly, telling CNN he wasn’t concerned about the president’s comments: “I don’t think the president ever inferred that he didn’t want to uphold the Constitution of the United States. … [He said] I’m going to make sure that we agree with the Supreme Court ruling. … When they rule on it and say it is or isn’t constitutional, they will abide by that.”
Trump did infer that he might not uphold the Constitution, the Supreme Court has already ruled, and the administration is not abiding by the ruling — but Trump’s allies have little recourse other than this type of gaslighting. Jesse Watters, for example, tried to claim on Fox News that the media was taking Trump’s comments out of context, describing a “hoax” to “make it seem like it’s unsure about upholding the Constitution.” Watters then simply played the clip of Trump flatly saying, “I don’t know,” when asked about upholding the Constitution.
The Trump administration isn’t offering much coherence, either. Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, was asked on Monday who is responsible for educating the president on his responsibility under Article 5 of the Constitution, which lays out the requirement for due process. “I think the president is one of the — if not the — most knowledgeable president’s we’ve ever had,” he said, adding that Trump is a “game changer.” Trump’s other chief border hawk, White House aide Stephen Miller, told Fox News that Trump is actually “saving” the Constitution, saying it requires him to stop any “invasion” of the United States.
Miller — who has repeatedly attacked the federal judges who have blocked Trump’s deportation agenda — has also argued, falsely, that the Constitution does not afford due process to undocumented immigrants, writing earlier on Monday: “Due process guarantees the rights of a criminal defendant facing prosecution, not an illegal alien facing deportation.”
Miller might make his points with conviction, but it’s just more gaslighting from an administration — and a modern conservative movement — that is wholly incapable of offering anything resembling a good-faith defense of their appointed leader’s innumerable public affronts to America’s foundational values and rank unfitness for office.
The Constitution specifically enshrines due process for any “person” — not any citizen — in the state’s jurisdiction. Trump might not know this, but Miller and those in Trump’s Justice Department certainly do, as does the Supreme Court — which has already ruled on this question, reiterating the constitutional requirement of due process for the undocumented last month after Trump shipped hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador without due process.
Republicans know it, too, and if any other president waffled about upholding the Constitution the way Trump did on Sunday, they’d be taking to the streets calling for their ouster. They’ve decided instead to reinforce that they care about placating Trump more than they care about the Constitution by not saying anything at all.
From Rolling Stone US
