Trump Just Said He Might Not Uphold the Constitution—And We Barely Blinked

We’ve gotten so desensitized to political chaos that we might’ve missed one of the most dangerous things a sitting president has said in modern American history.

Asked—point blank—if he’s required to uphold the Constitution, Trump responded:
“I don’t know.”

No, seriously. He said, “I don’t know,” when asked if the president of the United States has to uphold the one document that defines the entire existence of the job.

And somehow, we just moved on.

To be clear: This wasn’t a gotcha moment. This wasn’t a misstep or a bad soundbite. It was the sitting president admitting—on national television—that he’s not sure he has to follow the Constitution. Then shrugging it off and deferring to his “brilliant lawyers.” That’s not how this works. The Constitution isn’t a suggestion. It’s the job description.

But this is what happens when authoritarian behavior is treated like just another political position. Trump has spent years conditioning the public to believe that laws are optional for him, that checks and balances are inconvenient formalities, and that the courts—especially when they don’t rule in his favor—are “against the people.”

And now, in his second term, it’s clear he’s not just testing the limits of power. He’s openly rejecting them.

The context for this latest outburst? The Supreme Court ordered the administration to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a wrongfully deported father of three who was sent to prison in El Salvador without due process. Trump’s response? Defiance. He’s basically saying: “The Court can’t make me. And I’ll only listen if my attorney general tells me I have to.”

This is a constitutional crisis hiding in plain sight.

It’s not just about one man’s deportation. It’s about whether the executive branch is still accountable to the rule of law. Trump is testing that in real-time—and so far, he’s getting away with it.

This isn’t hyperbole. It’s the slow unraveling of democratic norms. And it’s happening through a combination of apathy, confusion, and narrative control. Because when the person in power undermines the very foundation of government—and no one in power calls it what it is—we normalize the erosion of democracy.

This is also why his comment about the Fifth Amendment should scare the hell out of everyone. When asked if he believes people—including immigrants—are entitled to due process, Trump said:
“I don’t know. It might say that.”

As if the Constitution is a random pamphlet he skimmed once in high school.

He went on to imply that honoring due process would require “a million or 2 million or 3 million trials,” and dismissed the whole idea as unworkable because, in his words, “some [immigrants] are murderers and drug dealers.”

That’s not a policy position. That’s authoritarian logic. That’s the language of dictators who justify mass detentions, disappearances, and state violence by painting entire populations as dangerous. When due process becomes optional, so does your freedom—especially if you’re not white, not rich, not powerful.

What’s worse is that the legal system is playing catch-up while Trump’s political machine runs laps around accountability. His administration is steamrolling norms, dodging rulings, and outsourcing justice to political loyalists like Pam Bondi, who seem more interested in enabling power than checking it.

We’re in the middle of a constitutional stress test—and the people meant to enforce the rules are either too compromised or too quiet to do anything about it.

So where do we go from here?

We stop pretending this is business as usual. We stop acting like authoritarianism only comes in uniforms and coups. Sometimes it comes in suits and shrugs—delivered with a smirk and followed by a flood of headlines that move on too quickly.

Trump is actively challenging the foundation of American governance: the idea that no one is above the law. And if he gets away with it again, we’re not just talking about the loss of one man’s rights or one agency’s credibility—we’re talking about the end of accountability itself.

Because a president who says “I don’t know” when asked if he must uphold the Constitution is already telling you his answer.