Trump says ‘I don’t know’ when asked if he backs US due process rights

President Donald Trump has said he is unsure whether people in the United States are entitled to due process rights guaranteed by the US Constitution as his administration pushes aggressively to deport immigrants who entered the country illegally and other non-citizens, including some detained for pro-Palestinian activism and other political speech.

Trump made his comments during an interview taped Friday at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida and aired Sunday on the NBC News programme Meet the Press with Kristen Welker.

Welker asked Trump whether he agreed with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said last month that “of course” all people in the US are entitled to due process, which generally requires the government to provide notice and a hearing before taking certain adverse legal actions.

“I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know,” Trump said, adding that such a requirement would mean “we’d have to have a million or two million or three million trials”.

The Constitution’s 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 added that his lawyers “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.

On April 19, the Supreme Court justices temporarily barred the Trump administration from deporting a group of Venezuelan migrants it accused of being gang members. Trump’s administration, which has invoked a rarely used, 18th-century wartime law, has urged the justices to lift or narrow their order.

US Solicitor General Dean John Sauer said in a filing to the Supreme Court that detainees are receiving advance notice of their removals and have had “adequate time” to file claims for judicial review.

The Trump administration has deported hundreds of men without providing evidence of gang membership. In one prominent case, that of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, authorities ignored a court order that was supposed to protect him from deportation to El Salvador. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyers later acknowledged that his removal was an “administrative error”.

Third term?

Separately, Trump said during the NBC interview that pursuing a third presidential term “is not something I’m looking to do”.

“It’s something that, to the best of my knowledge, you’re not allowed to do,” said Trump, who has occasionally hinted he would like to run for a third term.

The Constitution’s 22nd Amendment states in part: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”

Separately, Trump said the US economy is 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 that 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 percent decline in the US economy in the first quarter, saying 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, former US President Joe Biden.

Trump also said he won’t remove Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who the president has repeatedly criticised for not moving faster to lower interest rates, before his term as Fed chair ends in 2026.

Trump has in recent weeks repeatedly threatened to fire Powell. His attacks came after Powell signalled that the Federal Reserve – which is responsible for conducting US monetary policy – would keep its key interest rate unchanged, while it seeks “greater clarity” on the effect of policy changes in areas such as immigration, taxation, regulation and tariffs.

During the interview, Trump also said he would extend the June 19 deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the US assets of TikTok, the short video app used by 170 million Americans, if no deal had been reached by then.

“I would … I’d like to see it done,” Trump said.

Trump said he had a “sweet spot” for the app after it helped him win over young voters in the 2024 presidential election, adding, “TikTok is – it’s very interesting, but it will be protected”.