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President Donald Trump and Meet the Press host Kristen Welker speaking in December.<\/span>Peter Kramer\/NBC\/Getty<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n It has long <\/span>been evident<\/a> from his actions<\/a> that President Donald Trump does not respect the constitutional principle of due process. And now, he has admitted it himself.<\/p>\n In an interview with Meet the Press<\/em> host Kristen Welker of NBC News that aired on Sunday morning, Trump made clear that he does not concern himself with the pesky details of the Constitution\u2014despite the fact that the Oath of Office he has now taken<\/a> twice requires him to \u201cpreserve, protect and defend the Constitution.\u201d <\/p>\n When Welker pressed Trump on the administration\u2019s refusal to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back<\/a> from the El Salvador prison they deported<\/a> him to\u2014despite the Supreme Court\u2019s order<\/a> that the administration \u201cfacilitate\u201d his release from custody and officials\u2019 admission that Abrego Garcia was deported due to an \u201cadministrative error\u201d\u2014the president said that the decision is one for El Salvador\u2019s president, Nayib Bukele, to make. (In the Oval Office last month, Bukele said<\/a> he would not send Abrego Garcia, an undocumented immigrant originally from El Salvador, back to the United States. The U.S. government has alleged<\/a>, without presenting verifiable evidence, that he is a member of the MS-13 gang.)<\/p>\n Pressing Trump further, Welker said: \u201cYour secretary of state says everyone who\u2019s here, citizens and non citizens, deserve due process. Do you agree?\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Trump replied. \u201cI\u2019m not a lawyer.\u201d (His administration\u2019s actions\u2014which include seeking to deport<\/a> international student protesters who criticized<\/a> Israel\u2019s war in Gaza and sending a group of Venezuelans to a notorious prison<\/a>\u00a0in El Salvador seemingly based on their tattoos\u2014suggest he and his lawyers do not believe in due process.) <\/p>\n When Welker reminded him of the Fifth Amendment <\/a>of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to trial by grand jury and due process, Trump suggested it would be too cumbersome to actually honor in practice. \u201cIt might say that,\u201d he replied, referring to the Fifth Amendment, \u201cbut if you\u2019re talking about that, then we\u2019d have to have a million or two million or three million trials.\u201d <\/p>\n WELKER: Your secretary of state says everyone who’s here, citizens and non-citizens, deserve due process. Do you agree?<\/p>\n TRUMP: I don’t know. I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know.<\/p>\n WELKER: Don’t you need to uphold the Constitution?<\/p>\n TRUMP: I don’t know pic.twitter.com\/xRwDh8sm0X<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 4, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Trump continued to double down, saying the United States is home to \u201csome of the worst, most dangerous people on Earth, and I was elected to get them the hell out of here, and the courts are holding me from doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut even given those numbers that you\u2019re talking about,\u201d Welker continued, \u201cdon\u2019t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States?\u201d <\/p>\n Again, Trump\u2019s answer did not inspire confidence that the president can be trusted to uphold the guiding principles of the country. \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Trump replied. \u201cI 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.\u201d He added that his lawyers \u201chave a different interpretation\u201d of the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling from those who believe it requires the administration to try to bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States.<\/p>\n In the wide-ranging interview<\/a>, Trump also attacked Welker for some of her questions (\u201cWhy don\u2019t you ask it a different way?\u201d he chided, when she asked about his response to criticisms that he\u2019s taking the country down an authoritarian path<\/a>); refused to rule out using military force to take Greenland<\/a>; refused to rule out that his tariffs might cause a recession; and claimed he has been trolling in previously speculating on running for an unconstitutional third term<\/a> (\u201cThis is not something I\u2019m looking to do,\u201d he said).<\/p>\n But his comments regarding due process and the Constitution may be the most telling about how Trump sees his role in upholding\u2014or breaking\u2014the rule of law. As a protester calling for Abrego Garcia\u2019s return told<\/a> my colleague Isabela Dias on Thursday: \u201cIf we break due process in this country, we\u2019re all doomed. Everyone can be put in jail.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n