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Donald Trump doesn’t know if he has to uphold the Constitution. The president of the United States doesn’t know if he has to follow the Constitution, the foundational document of our country and our democratic government.
Let’s stop for a moment and let that sink in.
When Trump was sworn into office on Jan. 20, without putting his hand on the Bible that his wife Melania was holding, these were the words he repeated:
“I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me god.”
Technically, the oath doesn’t literally say he must follow the Constitution, but every president before him, for more than 200 years, has understood that to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution means actually abiding by its contents. There have been disagreements about what the words in the Constitution say and mean, but no president has said they are not bound by it.
Until now.
In a recent interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, host Kristen Welker repeatedly pressed the president on whether he needed to follow the Constitution, particularly the Fifth Amendment, which says that “no person shall be … deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” The president repeatedly said “I don’t know,” adding that he is not a lawyer and that he has a team of “brilliant lawyers” who look into these things.
If the president of the United States doesn’t know if he has to abide by the Constitution, if he thinks its provisions are optional, we’re in a really bad place.
As Sen. Angus King said bluntly last week: “This president is engaged in the most direct assault on the Constitution in our history, and we in this body, at least thus far, are inert — and therefore complicit.”
Trump certainly has bent the bounds of the Constitution, if not outrightly ignored them. His administration’s efforts to deport millions of people from the U.S. without hearings or due process violates the Constitution, several judges have ruled. Yet, the deportations continue.
His administration’s firing of thousands of government employees and withholding federal funding already approved by Congress violates the Constitution, judges have ruled. Yet, the work of DOGE goes on.
A judge overturned an attempt by the administration to punish Maine for its policies on transgender athletes. That issue may be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The fact that Trump feels no need to follow the laws of the U.S. or be bound by the Constitution should be a big red flag to every member of Congress, especially the Republicans who have long professed their admiration of the Founding Fathers who wrote it.
Most of them, however, have been silent. Sen. Susan Collins has been an exception on several issues. More of her GOP colleagues need to share her concern to stop Trump from ignoring the Constitution and irreparably damaging America.
Trump’s dismissal of the Constitution is compounded by his belief that he rules the world and is unbound by the norms of governing, decency, and even the truth.
Last week, the White House shared on its social media account an AI-generated image of Trump dressed as the pope, an image the president himself had posted on his Truth Social account. Just days after the death of Pope Francis, the image was an insult to the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
It was also offered a look into the unbound, and unhinged, egotism of Trump. He has said he runs the world (and that he’d like to be pope). Yet, he doesn’t know basic facts about America, like that we adhere to the Constitution and that Canada is the largest purchaser of U.S. exports.
A man with global domination delusions and such a weak grasp on reality is truly a danger not only to our democracy, but to the wellbeing of the U.S. and the world.
