Trump is not sure he must follow the Constitution

What happened

President Donald Trump said on Sunday's "Meet the Press" that he was not sure if he had to follow the Constitution. He also said a U.S. invasion of Canada was "highly unlikely" though "something could happen with Greenland," a big military parade planned for his 79th birthday will be "worth it" and he's not "looking to" run for an unconstitutional third term. Trump said on social media Sunday night he would order the federal government to reopen Alcatraz as a prison and place 100% tariffs on movies filmed overseas.

Who said what

Trump's "revealing" equivocation about upholding the Constitution capped an interview, taped Friday, that "roamed over broad territory," The New York Times said. "I don't know," Trump told NBC News' Kirsten Welker when she asked if he agreed that U.S. citizens and noncitizens were entitled to due process. The Fifth Amendment "might say that," he said, but affording migrants due process rights would require "a million or two million or three million trials," and "I was elected to get them the hell out of here."

Trump answered "I don't know" again when Welker asked, "Don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?" When he took the oath of office on Jan. 20, The Wall Street Journal noted, Trump swore "in part, to 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.'"

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Former Vice President Mike Pence, awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award Sunday night for certifying Trump's 2020 loss, said in his acceptance speech that "whatever differences we may have as Americans, the Constitution is the common ground on which we stand. It’s what binds us across time and generations," and "what makes us one people."

What next?

Transforming Alcatraz from a popular tourist attraction back to a working prison would be an "expensive and challenging proposition," The Associated Press said. Trump's June 14 parade will cost an estimated $45 million, but that's "peanuts compared to the value of doing it," he said. "We have the greatest weapons in the world. And we're going to celebrate it."