Trump: ‘I don’t know’ if I need to uphold the Constitution

Over the weekend, President Trump was asked whether he needs to uphold the Constitution as he pushes forward with a massive deportation program. Now, you might expect a pretty clear cut response from the president, but here's what he said. I was elected to get them the hell out of here, and the courts are holding me from doing it.

But even given those numbers that you're talking about, don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States? President, I don't know. 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.

Those comments, as President Trump also weighed in on growing concerns about the economy and, of course, speculation about him seeking a third term. Joining me now in the group chat, Stephen Collinson, CNN politics senior reporter, Carrie Champion, CNN contributor. And Brad Todd, Republican strategist.

You guys, welcome back to the chat. Okay, Brad, we haven't seen you in a minute. So do you mind if I start with you?

Go ahead. So here's what I hear when conservatives talk about this due process issue is that it doesn't count for immigrants. It doesn't count for migrants.

And we do know there are different rules in that respect. But what do you hear? The way the president answered because he was asked multiple times about this.

Listen, he's going to do what the court said. He said he's going to follow what the Supreme Court said and that that is what all of his critics answer. The yes or no?

No. What his critics have said for months. Oh, it's an he's an authoritarian.

He's going to abolish the Supreme Court. He's going to not hold elections like he's appealing decisions up the chain as they come. He says he's going to follow the Supreme Court's directives.

This is what his critics want him to say. They should they should exceed and give him credit for that. Do we want him to, get credit for that?

Well, he did swear an oath about three months ago to uphold the Constitution. You can argue whether you think that he's fully applying what the Supreme Court said in the Garcia case, which told him to facilitate the return. It didn't say that he couldn't deport Mr Garcia somewhere else.

But the president does say a lot of things. He says one thing one day and one the other. That's part of his political method to keep everyone.

Thank you for noting that. He acts like it's a choice. Yeah, well, it's obviously not a choice to uphold the like.

On the question of this idea of whether he would run for a third term in 2028. The way that the question was answered on the NBC interview was, well, it's not something I'm looking to do right now. I guess you could say, well, that's just following constitutional precedent.

But other people would say, given what's happened in the past, given what the president has said, that somewhat troubling, the way a little context over this. So we have a sense of the kinds of things that he was saying. So, at one point we had to kind of get it all together, all the things he answered, I don't know.

and here's a okay, you're ready for that. Here we go. You campaigned on a promise to bring prices down on day.

Well, I don't know. Your secretary of state says everyone who's here, citizens and non-citizens deserve due process. Do you agree?

Mr. I don't know, I'm not I'm not a lawyer. I don't know what the Fifth Amendment says, I don't know.

I don't know if that's constitutional. Don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president? I don't know, is anyone in your administration right now in contact with El Salvador about returning a Garcia?

I don't know. Well, the I don't know of it all right, to me is very clear that he does know, but I think everyone saying, oh, he does not know. I think that was very intentional in making sure that he doesn't say anything that could actually get him in trouble or hold him accountable.

But in my group chat, literally in my group chat, it was this conversation back and forth of interpretation. And they've always they his administration, people who work for him have always been like, let's interpret it the way we choose to interpret it until we can figure out how to get it to work. So you're saying that I don't know, is really trying to prevent any landmines later on?

Exactly. He knows what exactly it's about challenge. Yeah.

I feel like this is the conversational Trump. This is in this is Trump in low key mode. he also, by the way, we should know, has given more interviews in the past five months.

And Joe Biden gave in four years. He's good. The thing about giving interviews is that people scrutinize the answers, right?

Which is where we are now. That's right, that's right. I want to go back to what Steven said, though the Garcia case, whether he's complying or not, the case has been remanded down to the district court for clarification.

It's going to come back up to the Supreme Court whether or not the administration is complying with the court will happen once the court makes its decision on the merits of the case. And I think we all know what we expect that to be, but let's not prejudge that yet. I certainly what is interesting, though, is that this is a president who's very, direct in making claims of expansive power.

This is what I can do when he's challenged on it, when it's, a question of is there a political price to pay? He always says, in this and many other contexts, well, it's up to the lawyers. But in the end of the day, the president is the person that wields the power.

He has the responsibility. He's taken the oath. Right.

And they're not pushing these things without him. Right? They're not like just motoring to court to challenge him.

Issues without his interest. Convenient. And then saying, but actually, I'm in charge, as you say per audience, it's one thing to put something in the courts to say we should be able to x, Y, and z.

It's another thing to tell a national audience for sure. No, some people have rights and some people don't, but they are following what the courts dictate is so far. And they wish they should.

They should. That's clearly what they have to do. But his critics for five months have been shrieking, oh, he's preparing to defy the courts.

He's not doing that. We should note it. Earlier, I spoke with Michael Genovese, the president of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola marymount University, and I asked him about President Trump's response on deportations and upholding the Constitution.

Take a listen. It was a jaw dropping two days because of the way he was mumbling and fumbling about easy questions. He was asked a few days ago by ABC.

if the Declaration of Independence, which is on the wall of the Oval Office, what it means to him and Donald Trump fumbled and mumbled and finally said it, it means it's declaration. Then he said, it's a declaration of love. Well, it's a declaration of war.

We declared war and separation from Great Britain. And so it's a declaration of war. He didn't know that then.

Sunday morning on one of the interviews, shows, he was asked the question that you referred to. Which do you have to follow? The Constitution?

And and his answer was, I don't know. Well, he just a few weeks ago took an oath of office that required him to swear that he would uphold the Constitution. And he was also asked about due process.

Must you have due process for the people you're detaining and sending to El Salvador? And he said, I don't know. This is not rocket science.

He knows the answer. You should know the answer to this. and it's really sort of embarrassing that he did not.

And the detritus or squirm around it. He knows the answer. And the answer is you have to uphold the Constitution.

Period. End of sentence. And meantime, President Trump is dismissing concerns that his trade and tariff policies could lead to a recession, saying, quote, everything's okay, but conceding it could mean higher prices in the short term and perhaps a short lived recession.

What would be the political consequences of such an outcome? Well, you know, the captain of the Titanic told us not to worry. if he pursues more aggressive side of his tariffs, the United States will face a lot of global opposition.

There's already a lot of global opposition to Trump. in Canada, for example, he just had a, national election in which the liberal candidate who was way behind ran against Donald Trump and won in Australia, the Liberal candidates way behind ran against Donald Trump and won in Mexico. President New Mexico is staking her claim against Donald Trump.

Her popularity shoots up, so the U. S. brand is tarnished and Donald Trump keeps tarnishing it.

we went from global leader to pariah in weeks, and that has consequences. as a measure of our place in our status. We are declining in the eyes of the world, and we need to recover that because it has tremendous implications from everything from tourism to trade.