Trump says 'I don't know' if must uphold U.S. Constitution as president
U.S. President Donald Trump said in a television interview airing on Sunday (May 4, 2025) that he does not know whether he must uphold the U.S. Constitution.
He also said he is not seriously considering running for a third White House term, after musing publicly over an idea clearly barred by the nation's founding legal document.
'I don't know,' Mr. Trump responded when the host of NBC News 'Meet the Press with Kristen Welker' asked directly whether he believes he needs to uphold the supreme law of the land.
Asked specifically whether American citizens and non-citizens alike deserve the due process of law, as the U.S. Constitution states, Mr. Trump said: "I'm not a lawyer. I don't know."
The President's aggressive moves to deport undocumented migrants — some without the benefit of a court hearing — have drawn widespread criticism, but Mr. Trump insists it is necessary in the face of what he has declared to be a "national emergency."
The suggestion of possibly seeking a third term in office has been sharply questioned by legal and constitutional scholars.
The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution states that "no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice."
But Mr. Trump said in March he was "not joking" about seeking a third term, adding without elaboration that there are "methods" that would allow it to happen.
Changing the Constitution to allow a third term would be a heavy lift, requiring a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress and ratification by at least 38 of the 50 U.S. State Legislatures.
But "this is not something I'm looking to do," Mr. Trump told NBC's Ms. Welker, adding, "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."
Asked who that might be, he mentioned Vice President J.D. Vance — calling him a "fantastic, brilliant guy" — and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, while adding that "we have a lot of good people in this party."
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For all her childhood insecurities, Indira Gandhi had compensated, one should say over-compensated, her sons, particularly Sanjay, with love and care. She was blind to his shortcomings. Her concern for Sanjay's future well-being was not an inconsiderable factor in her fateful decision," Dhar Gandhi, he added, accepted the self-serving opinion of her party colleagues that the JP-led opposition's attacks on them were really attacks on Communist Party of India, her ally during the Emergency, had dubbed JP's agitation as a fascist movement supported by the US, a theory she embraced as she decided to suspend democracy, jail opposition leaders and censor the press to continue her the book written with a distance afforded to bureaucrats, no leading figure associated with the Emergency who comes in contact with Dhar comes out an unblemished hero, not even the venerable JP, whose call for 'Sampoorna Kranti' (total revolution) and mass agitation for removing duly elected Congress governments in states and the Centre are questioned for their defiance of the rule of law and constitutional the leadership of JP, as Jayaprakash Narayan was often called, was instrumental in galvanising popular sentiments against Indira Gandhi as his role in the Quit India Movement had cast him in a heroic mould and his rejection of Jawaharlal Nehru's offer of a Cabinet post gave him high moral stature in a country where renunciation of power is held in high esteem, Dhar after extending the tenure of the fifth Lok Sabha for another year till February 1978 on November 1976, Indira Gandhi was shown by Dhar a report of "extreme coercion" inflicted on a group of school teachers for not fulfilling their sterilisation quota, one of the five-point programmes of Sanjay Gandhi beyond the 20-point programme of her government."She fell silent after reading it. This was the first time she did not dismiss such allegations as false as had become her habit. After a long pause, she asked me in a tired voice how long I thought the Emergency should continue," he said."Odd as it might seem, some Congressmen who believed that their party would lose in the elections also supported the idea of holding them."They were so disgusted with Sanjay and his associates that they did not hesitate to tell his mother the opposite of what they believed would be the outcome of the elections," he wrote that he invited the then chief election commissioner on January 1, 1977, for tea at home and took him into confidence for holding delighted CEC sent him a bottle of whiskey in the evening. On January 18, 1977, Gandhi announced that the Lok Sabha had been dissolved and fresh elections would be held two months later, leaving the opposition, people and the press stunned.
