ANTI-AMERICAN
REPUBLICANS SILENT AS TRUMP REFUSES TO COMMIT TO UPHOLDING
CONSTITUTION
Rolling Stone reached out to all 53 GOP senators after the president said he
didn't know whether he needs to honor the nation's founding document. None
replied
By RYAN BORT
MAY 6, 2025
TOPSHOT - US President Donald Trump returns to the White House in
Washington, DC, on April 29, 2025, after speaking at a rally in Michigan to mark
his 100th day in office. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL
NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Donald Trump returns to the White House in Washington, D.C., on April 29,
2025.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
It’s a tired exercise to imagine how Republicans might react if Barack Obama or
Joe Biden was guilty of any of the gaffes Donald Trump commits on a daily
basis — but imagine for a second how conservatives would react if Obama or
Biden had been asked during a high-profile interview whether they feel it’s their
duty as president to uphold the Constitution, and they responded, “I don’t
know.”
Such is how Trump responded on Sunday when Kristen Welker of NBC News
pressed him on his administration’s refusal to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia — a
Maryland man the administration deported without due process — back from El
Salvador, including after the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that the administration
must “facilitate” his return. Trump has largely tried to wash his hands of
anything to do with the situation, repeatedly saying it’s up to his lawyers, which
is how he describes the Justice Department.
“Don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States, as president?”
Welker asked Trump after he pleaded ignorance about whether everyone in
America has a right to due process, a constitutional right.
“I don’t know,” Trump replied. “I have to respond by saying again that I have
brilliant lawyers that work for me. They are going to obviously follow what the
Supreme Court said. What you said is not what I heard the Supreme Court said.
They have a different interpretation.”
Regardless of any alternate “interpretations” of the Supreme Court’s ruling —
which several federal courts have excoriated the administration for failing to
honor — it’s hard to think of an easier question for a president to answer than
whether they should uphold the Constitution, which Trump pledged to
preserve, protect, and defend as part of his swearing-in ceremony.
Trump didn’t say, “Yes, however,” or, “Of course, but in this case,” or some other
hedge. He said, “I don’t know” — about upholding the nation’s founding
document, one that conservatives hold so dear that Trump included it in the
Bible he’s selling with country star Lee Greenwood. Now, he’s saying the
Constitution is only important so long as it doesn’t interfere with his political
goals.
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Trump later on Sunday posted his intention to reopen Alcatraz and an
inscrutable call to place tariffs on foreign films. These absurd directives
garnered more media attention than the president shrugging at the importance
of the Constitution.
Republicans have largely avoided the issue. Rolling Stone reached out to all 53
Republican senators asking for comment and didn’t receive a response from a
single one of them. The only Republican who seemed to criticize Trump’s
comments is Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who posted on Monday, “Following the
Constitution is not a suggestion. It is a guiding force for all of us who work on
behalf of the American people. Do you agree?”
The Republicans who have been asked about Trump’s dismissal of the
Constitution have largely responded by defending Trump. “Look, I think the
president knows he needs to uphold the Constitution,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis
(R-N.Y.) told CNN.
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Does he, though? It really, really seems like he doesn’t. He’s taken countless
blatantly unconstitutional actions since taking office. He recently told Time that
he wouldn’t “100 percent” agree that the United States should be ruled by laws,
not men. He constantly muses about being “king” and staying in office beyond
his constitutionally mandated term limit. What evidence is there that Trump
cares one iota about upholding the Constitution?
Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) responded similarly, telling CNN he wasn’t
concerned about the president’s comments: “I don’t think the president ever
inferred that he didn’t want to uphold the Constitution of the United States.…
[He said] I’m going to make sure that we agree with the Supreme Court ruling.…
When they rule on it and say it is or isn’t constitutional, they will abide by that.”
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Trump did infer that he might not uphold the Constitution, the Supreme Court
has already ruled, and the administration is not abiding by the ruling — but
Trump’s allies have little recourse other than this type of gaslighting. Jesse
Watters, for example, tried to claim on Fox News that the media was taking
Trump’s comments out of context, describing a “hoax” to “make it seem like it’s
unsure about upholding the Constitution.” Watters then simply played the clip
of Trump flatly saying, “I don’t know,” when asked about upholding the
Constitution.
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The Trump administration isn’t offering much coherence, either. Tom Homan,
Trump’s border czar, was asked on Monday who is responsible for educating
the president on his responsibility under Article 5 of the Constitution, which
lays out the requirement for due process. “I think the president is one of the — if
not the — most knowledgeable presidents we’ve ever had,” he said, adding that
Trump is a “game changer.” Trump’s other chief border hawk, White House aide
Stephen Miller, told Fox News that Trump is actually “saving” the Constitution,
saying it requires him to stop any “invasion” of the United States.
Miller — who has repeatedly attacked the federal judges who have blocked
Trump’s deportation agenda — has also argued, falsely, that the Constitution
does not afford due process to undocumented immigrants, writing earlier on
Monday: “Due process guarantees the rights of a criminal defendant facing
prosecution, not an illegal alien facing deportation.”
Miller might make his points with conviction, but it’s just more gaslighting from
an administration — and a modern conservative movement — that is wholly
incapable of offering anything resembling a good-faith defense of their
appointed leader’s innumerable public affronts to America’s foundational values
and rank unfitness for office.
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The Constitution specifically enshrines due process for any “person” — not any
citizen — in the state’s jurisdiction. Trump might not know this, but Miller and
those in Trump’s Justice Department certainly do, as does the Supreme Court
— which has already ruled on this question, reiterating the constitutional
requirement of due process for the undocumented last month after Trump
shipped hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador without due process.
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Republicans know it, too, and if any other president waffled about upholding
the Constitution the way Trump did on Sunday, they’d be taking to the streets
calling for their ouster. They’ve decided instead to reinforce that they care
about placating Trump more than they care about the Constitution by not
saying anything at all.
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