Dear editor,
My word processor has Constitution without amendments: 17 pages. An intelligent person might read and understand it within an hour. Certainly a President of our country should be expected to have read it, understand it and know it.
Constitution: “Before he [elected President] enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:—'I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.’”
William Livingstone, a New York lawyer, before Am. Revolution wrote: “{any good] government must be divided into separate Branches, for a check on each other … Such is the restless and aspiring Nature of the human Mind, that a Man entrusted with power, seldom contents himself with his future Proportion, and must be restrained.” (Independent Reflector)
Trump has demonstrated abundantly that he has no regard for the Constitution’s specification of separation of powers among the three branches of government (Legislative, Judicial, Executive). He seems to want to restrict and suppress power of Legislative and Judicial and expand power of Executive (his), overriding power of the other two branches.
“’We’ve never seen a president so comprehensively attempt to arrogate and consolidate so much of the other branches’ power, let alone to do so in the first two months of his presidency,’ said Stephen Vladeck, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Congress, which is controlled by Republicans, has ceded some of its core duties to Mr. Trump, handing off elements of the legislative branch’s spending authority to the White House and standing aside as congressionally chartered agencies are shuttered. The president has threatened to “lead the charge” against the re-election of the rare Republican who dares challenge his agenda, and the party has bent to his will at every turn. Mr. Trump has dismantled independent measures of checks and balances, fired inspectors general and installed loyalists at the Justice Department willing to carry out his campaign of retribution.” (New York Times, March 20, 2025)
President Donald Trump walked into Department of Justice and labeled his courtroom opponents “scum,” judges “corrupt” and prosecutors who investigated him “deranged.” (many sources). “[Judges] Boasberg and McConnell are among at least 11 federal judges whose families have faced threats of violence or harassment after they ruled against the new Trump administration. The broadsides are part of an intimidation campaign directed at federal judges who have stood in the way of Trump’s moves to dramatically expand presidential authority and slash the federal bureaucracy. As Trump and his allies call for judges to be impeached or attack them as ‘radical left’ political foes, the families of judges are being singled out for harassment.” (Reuters, May 2, 2025)
Asked in an interview whether U.S. citizens and noncitizens both deserve due process as laid out in the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution (“No person shall be … deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law …”), Trump was noncommittal. “I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know” (many sources)
Daily, APNews lists under header “Fact Check” misstatements (lies) by Trump and others of his administration. For Trump lying is his stock in trade. Trump at inauguration: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will …to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
-Henry Tideman, Oregon
