When President Donald Trump says, as he did in a Friday interview with NBC News that aired on Sunday, that he didn’t know whether every person on American soil was entitled to due process, despite constitutional guarantees, was he wrongly asserting his power as chief executive over even the United States Constitution, or was he merely being practical about his mass deportation program for undocumented immigrants in the country?

That’s our Question of the Week for readers.

Interviewer Kristen Welker asked Trump if he agreed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio that citizens and noncitizens in the United States were entitled to due process.

“I don’t know,” Trump replied. “I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know.”

She reminded the president that the Fifth Amendment affords “due process” of the law to everyone in the nation.

“I don’t know,” Trump said again. “It seems — it might say that, but if you’re talking about that, then we’d have to have a million or two million or three million trials.”

Is he right, or is his understanding contrary to the Constitution?

When asked specifically whether as president he is obligated “to uphold the Constitution of the United States,” he again said “I don’t know,” adding that he would rely on the advice of his “brilliant lawyers” on that question.

The interview was wide-ranging, and the topic was soon dropped in favor of others. But Trump did refer to the fact that he would rely on the interpretations and judgments of the Supreme Court as to what is constitutional for a president to do.

As of late he has been questioning the authority of other federal judges to quash his executive orders. So was this exchange just a way for the president to assure the public that he does see the judiciary as having an equal place in tripartite government? Do you think, as some say, that we face an imminent constitutional crisis because of tensions between the three branches? Does Trump questioning of judges’ authority indicate a real authoritarian streak, or is it mere banter?

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