On Inauguration Day, President Trump, like his predecessors, swore to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
But in recent days he has said he isn’t so sure about that commitment.
In an interview with NBC News that aired Sunday, Mr. Trump said “I don’t know” when asked whether he needed to uphold the Constitution as his administration tries to conduct the largest deportation operation in American history.
His remark came as part of a broader exchange over due process and who is afforded it, even though the Fifth Amendment guarantees it for every individual on American soil. Mr. Trump repeatedly said he wasn’t sure whether everyone is entitled to due process.
Mr. Trump’s extraordinary stance on the issue provides a window into his belief that the legal system should not prevent him from immediately deporting people who entered the United States illegally.
On Monday, Mr. Trump once again cast doubt on due process and how it would impede his mass deportation campaign, demonstrating he has little patience for individuals to have their day in court.
“The courts have all of a sudden, out of nowhere, they’ve said maybe you’re going to have to have trials,” the president said Monday in the Oval Office. “We’re going to have five million trials?”
The rhetoric from the president and his top aides is part of a strategy to defend the administration’s vision for a far-reaching and aggressive deportation campaign. Even as they have faced legal setbacks, some of which they have ignored, Mr. Trump and his allies have portrayed their efforts as necessary for national security.
Mr. Trump regularly paints migrants as “monsters” and “murderers,” describing them as “some of the worst people on Earth.” Last week, officials lined the North Lawn of the White House with mug shot-style posters of migrants who were arrested and accused of committing crimes.
“I was elected to get them the hell out of here and the courts are holding me from doing it,” Mr. Trump said in the NBC News interview.
To expedite the process, Mr. Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century wartime law, to deport Venezuelans his administration has deemed to be part of a street gang. Last week, a federal judge permanently barred the Trump administration from invoking the law, which had been used only three times before in U.S. history.
Mr. Trump has also ignored a Supreme Court ruling that directs his administration to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a migrant the administration mistakenly sent to a prison for terrorists in El Salvador. Mr. Garcia remains in El Salvador., and some Democrats have argued that Mr. Trump has thrust the country into a constitutional crisis by ignoring the order.
The president has also lashed out at judges who have ruled against him, calling for their impeachment and in turn drawing further criticism from Democrats and legal critics, who say he is undermining the independence of the judiciary. His attacks even earned a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who said “impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”
But Mr. Trump has long had an adversarial relationship with the judicial system and feels further empowered to act after having faced dozens of criminal charges after leaving office in 2021. As a candidate, Mr. Trump teased that he would be a dictator on his first day in office (his aides said he was joking), and he has made clear he views the Justice Department as designed to defend his interests.
Now, Mr. Trump and his top aides show no signs of backing down from this fight.
“The right of “due process” is to protect citizens from their government, not to protect foreign trespassers from removal,” Stephen Miller, one of Mr. Trump’s top advisers, posted Monday on social media. “Due process guarantees the rights of a criminal defendant facing prosecution, not an illegal alien facing deportation.”
