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Trump on due process: 'I don't know'

Matthew Medsger, Boston Herald on

Published in Political News

President Donald Trump has twice been sworn in to do the job of leading the country with his vow to uphold the Constitution, but on Sunday he expressed uncertainty about whether or not that included “due process.”

During a wide ranging interview aired Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press with Kristen Welker, Trump didn’t have an answer when asked if he needed to “uphold the Constitution of the United States as president” and provide due process to the people his administration is attempting to deport or has already deported.

“I don’t know,” Trump said.

Asked if he agreed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio that all people, regardless of citizenship status, are due legal process before deportation action is taken against them, Trump twice again said “I don’t know.”

“I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know,” the second term U.S. president said.

When informed that the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution indeed makes clear that no person should “be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” Trump conceded that “it might say that” but added that it would hold up the administration’s effort to deport all of the people targeted for removal.

“If you’re talking about that, then we’d have to have a million or 2 million or 3 million trials. We have thousands of people that are some murderers and some drug dealers and some of the worst people on Earth. Some 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,” he said.

Trump’s remarks Sunday come after U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. issued an order late last week directing the administration to cease its use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans accused of being members of Tren de Aragua, a violent street gang declared a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the administration in mid-March.

That law, passed in 1798 while the fledgling U.S. government worried over a “Quasi War” with France, can be invoked when the president concludes that “any invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation or government, and the President makes public proclamation of the event.” Once invoked, the president can order certain people from the invading nation to be expelled with very little due process.

However, according to the judge, those deemed “enemy aliens” are allowed enough due process to challenge that designation and people are entitled to question whether an invasion is actually occurring such that the president can invoke the centuries-old law.

Trump’s proclamation invoking the act, “makes no reference to and in no manner suggests that a threat exists of an organized, armed group of individuals entering the United States at the direction of Venezuela to conquer the country or assume control over a portion of the nation,” Judge Rodriguez wrote in his order.

“The Court concludes that the President’s invocation of the AEA through the Proclamation exceeds the scope of the statute and, as a result, is unlawful,” he wrote.

Trump expressed confusion over that decision, openly wondering if the courts were disallowing the deportation of people altogether, when in fact the judge had only prevented him from doing so under his March proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act but not “under the Immigration and Nationality Act.”

 

“Can it be so that Judges aren’t allowing the USA to Deport Criminals, including Murderers, out of our Country and back to where they came from? If this is so, our Country, as we know it, is finished! Americans will have to get used to a very different, crime filled, LIFE. This is not what our Founders had in mind,” the president said via his personally owned social media platform, emphasis his.

Trump also weighed in on recent discussions surrounding a possible third term, insisting that this term will be his last stint in the White House even though “so many people want me to do it — I have never had requests so strong as that.”

“But it’s something that, to the best of my knowledge, you’re not allowed to do. I don’t know if that’s Constitutional that they’re not allowing you to do it or anything else. But, there are many people selling the 2028 hat. But this is not something I’m looking to do,” he said.

Instead, the president indicated he’ll be focused on having “four great years” before eventually turning the reins over to “a great Republican to carry it forward.”

“But I think we’re going to have four years, and I think four years is plenty of time to do something really spectacular,” he said.

As far as who a potential successor might be, Trump said that Vice President JD Vance is “doing a fantastic job” but declined to offer his outright endorsement, claiming that it’s “far too early to say that.”

“I don’t want to get involved in that. I think he’s a fantastic, brilliant guy. Marco is great. There’s a lot of them that are great. I – I also see tremendous unity. But certainly you would say that somebody’s the VP, if that person is outstanding, I guess that person would have an advantage. But I think the other people would all stay in unbelievably high positions. But you know, it could be that he’d be challenged by somebody. We have a lot of good people in this party,” Trump said.

The president also restated his belief that Canada should be the 51st U.S. state, adding that it would be “highly unlikely” that the U.S. would need to use military force to make them join the states.

He was less certain with Greenland, though.

“Something could happen with Greenland,” Trump said. “I’ll be honest, we need that for national and international security. … I don’t see it with Canada. I just don’t see it, I have to be honest with you.”

________


©2025 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at bostonherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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