'What do you mean you don't know?' Tapper slams Trump over reply to Constitution question

President Donald Trump is claiming ignorance of one of the most fundamental elements of the presidential oath. And CNN host Jake Tapper is pointing out the absurdity of that claim.

During his Monday show, Tapper told his audience: "Upholding the Constitution for a president is not an optional thing." His monologue was in response to Trump's interview with NBC News' Kristin Welker over the weekend over his answer to Welker asking him "don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?" Welker asked Trump that question when talking about the Supreme Court's 9-0 order to "facilitate" the return of Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States and Abrego Garcia being entitled to due process rights despite his immigration status.

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"I don't know," Trump replied.

"What do you mean, you don't know?" Tapper exclaimed. "One day later, President Trump has yet to clarify that comment, and his aides are brushing it off. But it could mean something and it could mean something about the rule of law, and it could mean something about appealing rulings that he simply doesn't like."

Tapper began the segment by showing Trump taking the presidential oath of office for the second time on January 20, 2025, to illustrate his point that the president surely knows that he "solemnly" swears to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." The CNN host further emphasized the lack of ambiguity around whether Abrego Garcia had due process rights by playing a 2014 clip of the late conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. In that clip, Scalia made it clear that "anybody who's present in the United States has protections under the United States Constitution."

"So here's President Trump answering the question of whether non-citizens deserve due process under the Constitution," Tapper said.

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"I don't know. I'm not i'm not a lawyer, I don't know," Trump told Welker.

"Well, the Fifth Amendment says—" Welker said, before Trump interjected.

"I don't know, it seems it seems it might say that. But if you're talking about that, then we'd have to have a million or 2 million or 3 million trials," Trump responded.

"Now, it wouldn't be unreasonable president to answer yes when asked if he or she needs to uphold the Constitution," Tapper said. "But Trump's answer was, 'I don't know.'"

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