SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
By Aamer Madhani
US President Donald Trump is circumspect about his duties to uphold due process rights laid out in the Constitution, saying in an interview that he does not know whether citizens and noncitizens alike deserve that guarantee.
He also said he did not think military force would be needed to make Canada the “51st state” and played down the possibility he would look to run for a third term in the White House.
The comments came in a wide-ranging and at times combative interview with NBC’s Meet the Press.
It coincided with Trump’s efforts to quickly enact his agenda facing increased resistance from Americans, according to a recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research, just as his second administration crossed the 100-day mark.
Trump, however, made clear that he was not backing away from a to-do list that he insists the electorate broadly supported when they elected him in November.
Here are some of the highlights from the interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker that was taped Friday at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida and aired in the US on Sunday.
President Donald Trump holds his hat in the wind while disembarking Air Force One last week.Credit: AP
Trump doesn’t commit to due process
Critics on the left have tried to make the case that Trump is chipping away at due process in the United States. Most notably, they cite the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man who was living in the US when he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador and imprisoned without communication.
Trump says Abrego Garcia is part of a violent transnational gang. The president has sought to turn deportation into a test case for his campaign against illegal immigration despite a Supreme Court order saying the administration must work to return Abrego Garcia to the US.
Asked in the interview whether US citizens and noncitizens deserve due process – as laid out in the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution – Trump was noncommittal.
“I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know,” Trump said when pressed by Welker, adding that such a requirement would mean “we’d have to have a million or 2 million or 3 million trials”.
The Fifth Amendment provides “due process of law,” meaning a person has certain rights when it comes to being prosecuted for a crime. Also, the 14th Amendment says no state can “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”.
Trump said he has “brilliant lawyers … and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said”.
He said he was pushing to deport “some of the worst, most dangerous people on Earth”, but that courts are getting in his way.
“I was elected to get them the hell out of here, and the courts are holding me from doing it,” Trump said.
Military action against Canada is ‘highly unlikely’
The president has repeatedly threatened that he intends to make Canada the “51st state”.
Before his White House meeting on Tuesday with newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Trump is not backing away from the rhetoric that has angered Canadians.
Trump, however, told NBC that it was “highly unlikely” that the U.S. would need to use military force to make Canada the 51st state.
He offered less certainty about whether his repeated calls for the US to take over Greenland from NATO ally Denmark can be achieved without military action.
“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.”
President bristles at recession forecasts
Trump said the US economy was in a “transition period”, but he expects it to do “fantastically” despite the economic turmoil sparked by his tariffs.
He offered sharp pushback when Welker noted some Wall Street analysts now say the chances of a recession are increasing.
“Well, you know, you say, some people on Wall Street say,” Trump said. “Well, I tell you something else. Some people on Wall Street say that we’re going to have the greatest economy in history.”
He also deflected blame for the 0.3 per cent decline in the US economy in the first quarter. He said he was not responsible for it.
“I think the good parts are the Trump economy and the bad parts are the Biden economy because he’s done a terrible job,” referring to his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden.
Trump doubled down on his recent comments at a Cabinet meeting that children might have to have two dolls instead of 30, denying that is an acknowledgment his tariffs will lead to supply shortages.
“I’m just saying they don’t need to have 30 dolls. They can have three. They don’t need to have 250 pencils. They can have five.”
Trump plays down third-term talk
The Republican president has repeatedly suggested he could seek a third term in the White House, even though the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution says “no person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice”.
Trump told NBC there was considerable support for him to run for a third term.
“But this is not something I’m looking to do,” Trump said. “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.”
Trump’s previous comments about a third term sometimes seem more about provoking outrage on the political left. The Trump Organisation is even selling red caps with the words “Trump 2028”.
But at moments, he has suggested he was seriously looking into a third term. In a late March phone interview with NBC, Trump said, “I’m not joking. There are methods which you could do it.”
So JD Vance in 2028? Marco Rubio? Not so fast…
Trump said in the interview that Vice President J.D. Vance was doing a “fantastic job” and is “brilliant”. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whom Trump last week tasked to simultaneously serve as acting national security adviser, is “great”, the president said.
But Trump said it was “far too early” to begin talking about his potential successor.
Marco Rubio and Vice President J.D. Vance.Credit: Bloomberg
He is confident that his “Make America Great Again” movement will flourish beyond his time in the White House.
“You look at Marco, you look at JD Vance, who’s fantastic,” Trump said. “You look at – I could name 10, 15, 20 people right now just sitting here. No, I think we have a tremendous party. And you know what I can’t name? I can’t name one Democrat.”
Hegseth is ‘totally safe’
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has been under fire for his participation in several Signal chat chains in which sensitive information about military planning was shared, but Trump said he was not looking to replace his Pentagon chief.
“No. Not even a little bit. No. Pete’s going to be great,” Trump said. Hegseth’s job is “totally safe”.
The president also said his decision to nominate national security adviser Mike Waltz to be the US ambassador to the United Nations was not punishment for starting one of the Signal groups to which Waltz inadvertently added a journalist.
“No. I just think he’ll do a nice job in the new position,” Trump said. He said his decision to have Rubio take over Waltz’s duties would likely be temporary.
“Marco’s very busy doing other things, so he’s not going to keep it long term. We’re going to put somebody else in,” Trump said, adding that it would nonetheless be possible to do both jobs indefinitely.
“You know, there’s a theory. Henry Kissinger did both. There’s a theory that you don’t need two people. But I think I have some really great people that could do a good job.”
He said one person not being considered for the post is top policy aide Stephen Miller.
“Well, I’d love to have Stephen there, but that would be a downgrade,” he said. “Stephen is much higher on the totem pole than that, in my opinion.”
AP
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