On Inauguration Day, President Trump, like his predecessor, vowed to “protect, protect and defend the U.S. Constitution.”
But in recent days, he said he was not sure about the promise.
When asked if he needed to uphold the Constitution, when his administration tried to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, Trump said in an interview with NBC News that Trump said “I don't know.”
His remarks are part of a broader exchange about due process, although the Fifth Amendment guarantees everyone on American soil. Mr. Trump repeatedly said he was not sure if everyone has the right to due process.
Mr. Trump’s extraordinary position on the issue provides a window into his belief that the legal system should not prevent him from immediately expelling those who entered the United States illegally.
On Monday, Mr. Trump was once again suspicious of due process and how to hinder his massive deportation campaign, showing that he had little patience to let an individual spend a day in court.
“The court suddenly became ubiquitous and they said maybe you're going to have to go to the trial,” the president said in the Oval Office on Monday. “We're going to do 5 million trials?”
The remarks of the President and his supreme aides are part of a strategy to defend the government’s vision for a far-reaching and active deportation campaign. Even if they encounter legal setbacks, some of which ignore them, Trump and his allies portray their efforts as necessary for national security.
Mr. Trump often portrays immigrants as “monsters” and “killers”, calling them “the worst people on earth.” Last week, officials listed cup-shooting style posters on the White House’s North Lawn that were arrested and charged with crimes.
“I was elected as their hell, and the court kept me from doing that,” Trump said in an NBC News interview.
To speed up the process, Mr. Trump invoked the Alien Enemy Act, a wartime law in the 18th century, to expel his administration believed to be part of street gangs. Last week, a federal judge permanently banned the Trump administration from invoking the law, which has been used only three times in U.S. history.
Mr. Trump also ignored the Supreme Court ruling which directed his administration to return to Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the government was wrongly sent to the prison for terrorists in El Salvador. Mr. Garcia remains in El Salvador, with some Democrats arguing that Mr. Trump has put the country in a constitutional crisis by ignoring the order.
The president also slammed the judges who ruled against him, calling on them to impeachment, and in turn raised further criticism from Democrats and legal critics who said he was undermining the independence of the judiciary. His attack even received a rare condemnation from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who said: “Impotence is an appropriate response to the differences on judicial decisions.”
But Mr. Trump has long established an adversarial relationship with the justice system and feels capable of taking action after leaving office in 2021. As a candidate, Mr. Trump laughed at him for being a dictator on his first day of office (his aide said he was kidding) and made clear his interests to defend his own.
Now, Mr. Trump and his senior aides show no signs of the fight.
Stephen Miller, one of Mr. Trump’s top advisers, posted on social media on Monday. “Due to proceedings guarantee the rights of criminal defendants facing prosecution, not the rights of illegal foreigners facing deportation.”
