Trump: Constitution Gives Me ‘The Right To Do Whatever I Want As President’
July 24th 2019
Donald Trump (Gage Skidmore)
By Kaili Joy Gray
Trump gave an hour-long speech Tuesday to Turning Point USA, an organization of conservative teens who support Trump, in which he revived some of his favorite talking points and even offered a few new ones.
He relived his 2016 electoral victory, he repeated his smears on the four Democratic members of Congress he’s been attacking for more than a week, and he claimed the Constitution allows him the power to do whatever he wants.
“Then I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president,” he claimed to the crowd of MAGA-capped fans. “But I don’t even talk about that.”
It should go without saying that no part of the Constitution grants the president of the United States the right to do whatever he wants. Article II does, however, state that the president “shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has claimed that Article II — which he seems to think is an unknown part of the Constitution that most people aren’t aware of — gives him absolute power.
“Nobody ever mentions Article II,” Trump insisted earlier this month. “It gives me all of these rights at a level that nobody has ever seen before.”
Trump isn’t known for being much of a reader, but when it comes to the Constitution — specifically, the part that says he can be impeached — he might want to consult his many attorneys to make sure he is clear about what it actually says.
Posted under Creative Commons license