KRISTEN WELKER: .... [D]on't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?
PRES. DONALD TRUMP: 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. What you said is not what I heard the Supreme Court said. They have a different interpretation.
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How does he not know as the head of the Executive Branch of government, he promised to defend the Constitution in his Oath of Office? The oath is in Article II Section 1 of the Constitution:
"Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:—“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
The oath now says:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
An easy to remember trilogy: "Protect, Preserve and Defend."
What he's saying is the Constitution is subject to interpretation. But hasn't he previously aligned himself with Scalia, the originalist?
The man is so dualistic. He can only see in black and white. People are either good or evil, smart or dumb. (this harks back to the beliefs of the 4th Century Manicheans). America vs. the world, Americans first.
He cannot stop complimenting himself over creating (in his view) the most secure border in the history of our country, and he cannot stop himself from blaming Joe Biden for everything wrong with America.
TRUMP: After being abused for years by an incompetent president that allowed people to pour through an open border, criminals from all over the world, murderers and insane people from mental institutions and insane asylums, isn't it – isn’t it a beautiful thing when you say, "It's the most secure it's ever been in the history of our country.” Isn't that a nice statement?
Give him an inch of an opening and he will go a mile with his insults. On a Democrat named Crockett who was touted as a potential moving force in the Democratic Party:
I look at the Democrats, they're in total disarray. They have a new person named Crockett. I watched her speak the other day. She's definitely a low IQ person. And they said she's the future of the party. I said, "You have to be kidding."
His motor mouth knows no control:
They have nobody. Bernie's 87 years old or something. And you know, Biden is the worst thing that ever happened to old people because he was grossly incompetent. And I think maybe for artificial reasons. You know, he had operations and things. So maybe that’s an artificial – but I know people that are unbelievably sharp and they're older than 87. But I watch Bernie Sanders. He's a nut job, but he's still sharp. He's sharp as – he’s the same guy he was. He hasn't gone down. But Biden is really – he’s the worst thing to happen to old people.
Is Donald Trump capable of learning that the Chief Executive does not make nor interpret laws? That he is not the arbiter of what the Constitution demands, but is subservient to it? That the role of the Department of Justice and its prosecutors is not to effectuate his private grievances to those who offend him?
Of course not. He is someone who lacks the temperment and the will to carry out the duties of his job. May the next two years pass quickly. May Americans who support Trump wake up before its too late and we are no longer a constitutional and representative democracy but just another nation led by an autocrat and the billionaire oligarchs he appoints.
