US President Donald Trump made a startling admission on Sunday: he is unsure if he is bound by the law of the land as he pursues his mass deportation strategy by any means necessary
Trump was speaking in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, which aired Sunday.
Moderator Kristen Welker asked the president if noncitizens in the United States deserve due process — a standard the Supreme Court has upheld for decades.
“I don’t know,” Trump responded. “I’m not a lawyer.”
“Well, the Fifth Amendment says as much,” Welker retorted.
The president responded, saying that such restrictions would be an unwieldy burden on his administration as it seeks to deport millions of people over the next four years.
“I don’t know. It seems– it might say that, but if you’re talking about that, then we’d have to have a million or 2 million or 3 million trials,” Trump answered. “We have thousands of people that are some murderers and some drug dealers and some of the worst people on Earth.”
Welker then asked: “But even given those numbers that you’re talking about, don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?”
“I don’t know,” Trump said, pivoting to a claim he’s made several times in the past few weeks: that his staff believe the Supreme Court took a different view when it voted 9-0 to order the White House to “facilitate” the return of a wrongfully deported man, an order which his administration has been flouting for weeks.
“I 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. What you said is not what I heard the Supreme Court said.”
The president, apparently following the lead of his own staff, has repeatedly claimed (falsely) that the Court actually ruled in his favor. His remark about not knowing whether he needs to “uphold the Constitution” comes just a little more than 100 days after he swore an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
During the wide-ranging interview, Trump also dismissed the idea of running for a third term. The US president has been the subject of speculation on the matter after insistences from Steve Bannon, his former chief strategiest, in an interview with HBO’s Bill Maher — among other instances.
The speculation has even been encouraged by Trump’s own family businesses. A “Trump 2028” hat is currently being sold by the Trump Organization’s online store; a product description reads, in part: “Rewrite the rules.”
But on Sunday the president insisted that was all in jest.
“[T]his is not something I’m looking to do. I’m looking to have four great years and turn it over to somebody, ideally a great Republican, a great Republican to carry it forward. But I think we’re going to have four years, and I think four years is plenty of time to do something really spectacular,” Trump told NBC News. He added that he did not believe it was legal for him to seek another term.
Trump was asked if supporters had presented the idea of seeking a constitutional amendment to allow him to run for a third term, to which he responded again that it was not something he was seriously considering.
Of those calls, he said: “They like the job I’m doing, and it’s a compliment. It’s really a great compliment.”
The remainder of Trump’s Sunday sitdown with Welker was chaotic and touched on his foreign policy and trade, as well as fears among US economists that a recession is on the horizon. The president repeated his assertion that any disturbances or ill effects within the US economy today could be blamed on the presidency of Joe Biden, while he brazenly took credit for “the good parts”.
But though businesses and economists alike have pointed to the stress of Trump’s tariff agenda and the uncertainty caused by his on-again-off-again trade policy announcements on the economy, the president did little to restore confidence during his interview. His one moment of retreat from his previous bluster was on the issue of Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve and a top target of the president’s criticism over interest rates. The president vowed not to fire Powell before his term ends, a move that would end or at a minimum damage the Fed’s independence.
He also vowed to continue his efforts to reorganize global trade relationships through the use of tariffs and reiterated that he may leave in place 10 percent tariffs on all US imports for the remainder of his term. Trump would go on to claim that the result of this policy was an unprecedented plan by US and foreign businesses to invest in American manufacturing plants, allegedly to the tune of $9 trillion.
“They’re stopping work in Mexico, and they’re stopping work in Canada, and they’re all moving here,” claimed Trump.
Welker asked the president at one point if he believed a recession was possible. Trump denied that he believed one would occur, before saying that “anything can happen”.
“Are you worried about a recession?” asked Welker.
“No, I think we’re going to have the greatest economic-” Trump responded, before being cut off by Welker, who asked if he thought it “could happen”.
“Anything can happen. But I think we’re going to have the greatest economy in the history of our country. I think we’re going have the greatest economic boom in history,” he said.
Trump’s remarks about his own territorial ambitions over Greenland and Canada were likely to be even less reassuring to US allies, including NATO members.
He waved off the prospect of using of military force against Canada, one of the US’s oldest allies, but was cavalier regarding the territory held by fellow NATO member-state Denmark.
Welker probed the question after an exchange with the president over Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister. Elected to serve a full term last week, Carney’s Liberal Party underwent a stunning turnaround in the polls after rallying in opposition to the US president’s rhetoric and trade policies.
“You and I talked, and I asked you if you would rule out military force to take Greenland,” Welker told Trump. “And you said, no, you don’t rule out anything. Would you rule out military force to take Canada?”
“Well, I think we’re not going to ever get to that point. It could happen. Something could happen with Greenland. I’ll be honest, we need that for national and international security,” Trump responded. “But I think it’s highly unlikely.”
“But not with Canada?” Welker broke in.
“I don’t see it with Canada. I just don’t see it, I have to be honest with you,” Trump said.
On Greenland, he’d go on to reiterate the possibility of a US invasion.
“I don’t rule it out. I don’t say I’m going to do it, but I don’t rule out anything. No, not there. We need Greenland very badly. Greenland is a very small amount of people, which we’ll take care of, and we’ll cherish them, and all of that. But we need that for international security,” said Trump.
