{"id":136168,"date":"2025-05-04T15:17:57","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T15:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-asked-if-he-has-to-uphold-the-constitution-says-i-dont-know-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2025-05-04T15:17:57","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T15:17:57","slug":"trump-asked-if-he-has-to-uphold-the-constitution-says-i-dont-know-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-asked-if-he-has-to-uphold-the-constitution-says-i-dont-know-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump, asked if he has to 'uphold the Constitution,' says, 'I don't know' – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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President Donald Trump argued in an interview with NBC News\u2019 \u201cMeet the Press\u201d that fulfilling his ambitious campaign promise to rapidly carry out mass deportations may take precedence over giving immigrants the right to due process under the Constitution, as required by courts.
A central part of Trump\u2019s agenda has been implementing the \u201clargest deportation operation<\/a>\u201d in U.S. history, as he vowed during the 2024 campaign. In service of that goal, his administration has pressed the courts<\/a> to allow the immediate removal of immigrants it accuses of being members of a Venezuelan gang, without giving them a chance to plead their case before a judge.
In an interview last month with \u201cMeet the Press,\u201d Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, \u201cYes, of course<\/a>,\u201d when asked whether every person in the United States is entitled to due process.
Trump, however, isn\u2019t so sure.
\u201cI don\u2019t know. I\u2019m not, I\u2019m not a lawyer. I don\u2019t know,\u201d Trump replied when asked by \u201cMeet the Press\u201d moderator Kristen Welker whether he agreed with Rubio. His comments came during a wide-ranging interview at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, which aired Sunday.
The Constitution\u2019s Fifth Amendment<\/a> says \u201cno person\u201d shall be \u201cdeprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law\u201d; it does not say that person must be a U.S. citizen, and the Supreme Court has long recognized that noncitizens have certain basic rights. Trump has also said that while \u201cwe always have to obey the laws,\u201d he would like to see some \u201chomegrown criminals\u201d sent to El Salvador as well, a proposal that was widely panned<\/a> by legal experts.
When Welker tried to point out what the Fifth Amendment said, Trump suggested that such a process would slow him down too much.
\u201cI don\u2019t know. It seems \u2014 it might say that, but if you\u2019re talking about that, then we\u2019d have to have a million or 2 million or 3 million trials,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have thousands of people that are \u2014 some murderers and some drug dealers and some of the worst people on Earth.\u201d
\u201cI was elected to get them the hell out of here, and the courts are holding me from doing it,\u201d he added.
\u201cBut even given those numbers that you\u2019re talking about, don\u2019t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?\u201d Welker asked.
\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Trump replied. \u201cI 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.\u201d
The Supreme Court has already made it clear to the Trump administration in three different recent decisions that it has to allow basic due process rights for immigrants based on the long-standing understanding of the laws.
That would not require full trials, as Trump suggested. What it would require is the chance to appear before an immigration judge. Such judges are not part of the judicial branch; they are employees of the Justice Department. Administration officials have spoken out against such constraints, leading to allegations that they have defied instructions from lower court judges and even the Supreme Court.
One major point of contention has been the administration\u2019s novel invocation of a 1798 law, the Alien Enemies Act, to quickly deport alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The law has previously been used only during times of war, but the U.S. government is claiming that the gang is effectively an invading force connected to the Venezuelan government in order to use the law\u2019s power to remove people without going through the processes laid out in other laws, like the Immigration and Nationality Act. That effort, though, is facing stiff opposition.
Men facing deportation under the law said they had no chance to contest whether they are even members of the gang, leading to two different Supreme Court decisions that blocked the administration from sending them to prison in El Salvador without due process. One decision<\/a> came early on the morning of April 19, hours after men had been loaded onto buses and were seen<\/a> heading toward an airport in Texas.
Another high-profile case has involved Kilmar Abrego Garcia<\/a>, a Salvadoran man who was living in Maryland with his wife and three children when he was deported to El Salvador. The Trump administration accused him of being a member of the MS-13 gang<\/a> \u2014 which Abrego Garcia\u2019s wife and attorney deny \u2014 in its justification for deporting him to his home country, even though an immigration judge\u2019s order from 2019 barred him from being sent there.
The administration has admitted that it was an \u201cadministrative error\u201d to deport him, and the Supreme Court ordered<\/a> that the government \u201cfacilitate\u201d his return to the United States so that he can plead his case. The administration appears to have made little effort to do so and has insisted it doesn\u2019t have the power to force El Salvador to do so.
\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Trump replied when asked whether anyone in his administration is in touch with the government of El Salvador to return Abrego Garcia. \u201cYou\u2019d have to ask the attorney general that question.\u201d
It is not disputed that Abrego Garcia entered the U.S. illegally or that the government could potentially deport him.
Trump insisted he was not defying the Supreme Court.
\u201cNo. I\u2019m relying on the attorney general of the United States, Pam Bondi, who\u2019s very capable, doing a great job. Because I\u2019m not involved in the legality or the illegality,\u201d he said. \u201cI have lawyers to do that and that\u2019s why I have a great DOJ.\u201d
Trump also said he may go back to the Supreme Court to seek clarification on what the justices meant by the word \u201cfacilitate.\u201d
\u201cWe may do that. I was asking about that. We may do that,\u201d he said.
The administration lost in lower courts<\/a> over its response to the Supreme Court\u2019s decision in the Abrego Garcia case but has yet to ask the justices to intervene for a second time.
The Trump administration has other options to speed up the deportation process \u2014 for example, by asking Congress to amend immigration laws and expand resources for immigration judges so that a backlog of cases can be processed more quickly. The administration, however, has fired some immigration judges<\/a>.
Welker also noted that some Americans have been mistakenly detained<\/a> by immigration authorities under Trump\u2019s administration and asked whether lawful residents need to start carrying paperwork when they leave home, in order to prove their status.
\u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019ll be necessary,\u201d Trump said. He then shifted, speaking about people who \u201chave been killed, maimed, badly hurt by illegal immigrants that came over that are from prisons and from jails and from mental institutions.\u201d
During his interview Friday, Trump repeatedly invoked his lawyers, saying he was heeding their instructions to make sure he was following the law. In addition to immigration, Trump addressed his threat to take away the tax-exempt status<\/a> of Harvard University.
The Ivy League school recently sued the federal government<\/a> over its decision to freeze more than $2 billion<\/a> in funding. The administration claimed the university was refusing to take actions aimed at ending antisemitism on campus; Harvard said they were \u201cunprecedented\u201d demands<\/a> to police the viewpoints of students, faculty and staff members.
Welker noted to Trump that federal law prohibits a president from directing<\/a> the Internal Revenue Service to investigate and rescind an organization\u2019s status.
\u201cDo you think you\u2019re following the law?\u201d Welker asked.
\u201cI\u2019m going to just follow what the lawyers say,\u201d Trump replied. \u201cThey say that we\u2019re allowed to do that, and I\u2019m all for it. But everything I say is subject to the laws being 100% adhered to.\u201d
Trump also said he was willing to take the fight to court, if need be.\u00a0
\u201cSure,\u201d he added. \u201cWhy not?\u201d
Amanda Terkel is politics managing editor for NBC News Digital.
Lawrence Hurley is a senior Supreme Court reporter for NBC News.
© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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