WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) ā President is circumspect about his duties to uphold due process rights laid out in the Constitution, saying in a new interview that he does not know whether U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike deserve that guarantee.
He also said he does not think military force will be needed to and played down the possibility he would look to in the White House.
The comments in a wide-ranging, and at moments combative, interview with NBCās āMeet the Press" came as the Republican president's efforts to quickly enact his agenda face with Americans just as his second administration crossed the 100-day mark, according to a recent poll by .
Trump, however, made clear that he is not backing away from a to-do list that he insists the American electorate broadly supported when they elected him in November.
Here are some of the highlights from the interview with NBC's Kristen Welker that was taped Friday at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida and aired Sunday.
Trump doesn't commit to due process
Critics on the left have tried to make the case that Trump is chipping away at due process in the United States. Most notably, they cite the case of a Salvadoran man who was living in Maryland when he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador and imprisoned without communication.
Trump says Abrego Garcia is part of a violent transnational gang. The Republican president has sought to turn deportation into a test case for his campaign against illegal immigration despite a Supreme Court order saying the administration must work to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S.
Asked in the interview whether U.S. citizens and noncitizens both deserve due process as laid out in the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, Trump was noncommittal.
āI donāt know. Iām not, Iām not a lawyer. I donāt know,ā Trump said when pressed by Welker.
The Fifth Amendment provides ādue process of law,ā meaning a person has certain rights when it comes to being prosecuted for a crime. Also, the 14th Amendment says no state can ādeny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.ā
Trump said he has ābrilliant lawyers ... and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said.ā
He said he was pushing to deport āsome of the worst, most dangerous people on Earth,ā but that courts are getting in his way.
āI was elected to get them the hell out of here, and the courts are holding me from doing it,ā Trump said.
Military action against Canada is āhighly unlikelyā
The president has repeatedly threatened that he intends to make Canada the ā51st state.ā
on Tuesday with Canadian Prime Minister , Trump is not backing away from the rhetoric that has angered Canadians.
Trump, however, told NBC that it was āhighly unlikelyā that the U.S. would need to use military force to make Canada the 51st state.
He offered less certainty about whether his repeated calls for the U.S. to take over Greenland from NATO-ally Denmark can be achieved without military action.
āSomething could happen with Greenland,ā Trump said. āIāll be honest, we need that for national and international security. ... I donāt see it with Canada. I just donāt see it, I have to be honest with you.ā
President bristles at recession forecasts
Trump said the U.S. economy is in a ātransition periodā but he expects it to do āfantasticallyā 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.
āWell, you know, you say, some people on Wall Street say,ā Trump said. āWell, I tell you something else. Some people on Wall Street say that weāre going to have the greatest economy in history.ā
He also deflected blame for the 0.3% decline in the U.S. economy in the first quarter. He said he was not responsible for it.
āI think the good parts are the Trump economy and the bad parts are the Biden economy because heās done a terrible job,ā referring to his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden.
Trump doubled down on his at a Cabinet meeting that children might have to have two dolls instead of 30, denying that is an acknowledgment his tariffs will lead to supply shortages.
āIām just saying they donāt need to have 30 dolls. They can have three. They donāt need to have 250 pencils. They can have five.ā
Trump plays down third-term talk
The president has repeatedly suggested in the White House even though the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution says that āNo person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.ā
Trump told NBC there is considerable support for him to run for a third term.
āBut this is not something Iām looking to do,ā Trump said. āIām looking to have four great years and turn it over to somebody, ideally a great Republican, a great Republican to carry it forward.ā
Trump's previous comments about a third term sometimes seem more about provoking outrage on the political left. The Trump Organization is even selling red caps with the words āTrump 2028.ā
But at moments, he has suggested he was seriously looking into a third term. In a , Trump said, āIām not joking. There are methods which you could do it.ā
So JD Vance in 2028? Marco Rubio? Not so fast.
Trump said in the interview that Vice President JD Vance is doing a āfantastic jobā and is ābrilliant.ā Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whom Trump last week tasked to , is āgreat,ā the president said.
But Trump said it is āfar too earlyā to begin talking about his potential successor.
He is confident that his "Make America Great Again" movement will flourish beyond his time in the White House.
āYou look at Marco, you look at JD Vance, whoās fantastic,ā Trump said. āYou look at ā I could name 10, 15, 20 people right now just sitting here. No, I think we have a tremendous party. And you know what I canāt name? I canāt name one Democrat.ā
Hegseth is ātotally safe'
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been under fire for his participation in Signal text chains in which sensitive information about military planning was shared. But Trump said he is not looking to replace his Pentagon chief.
āNo. Not even a little bit. No. Peteās going to be great,ā Trump said. Hegseth's job is ātotally safe."
The president also said his decision to nominate national security adviser Mike Waltz to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was not punishment for starting the chain to which Waltz inadvertently added a reporter.
āNo. I just think heāll do a nice job in the new position," Trump said. He said his decision to have Rubio take over Waltz's duties will likely be temporary.
āMarcoās very busy doing other things, so heās not going to keep it long term. Weāre going to put somebody else in," Trump said, adding that it would nonetheless be possible to do both jobs indefinitely. āYou know, thereās a theory. Henry Kissinger did both. Thereās a theory that you donāt need two people. But I think I have some really great people that could do a good job."
One person he said he is not considering for the post? Top policy aide Stephen Miller.
āWell, Iād love to have Stephen there, but that would be a downgrade," he said. āStephen is much higher on the totem pole than that, in my opinion.ā
Trump insists he's not profiting from the presidency, plans to donate his salary once again
Trump denied he is profiting from the presidency, even as he continues to promote a series of business ventures, including cryptocurrency holdings.
āIām not profiting from anything. All Iām doing is, I started this long before the election. I want crypto. I think cryptoās important because if we donāt do it, Chinaās going to. And itās new, itās very popular, itās very hot,ā Trump said, adding that he hasn't even āeven lookedā at how much heās made from the venture.
Just days before taking office, Trump his own meme coin, which surged in value after it announced that top holders would be at the president's Washington-area golf club later this month and a tour of the White House. He also helped launch World Liberty Financial, another cryptocurrency venture, last year.
That's in addition to a long list of other business ventures, from Trump Media & Technology Group, which runs his Truth Social site, to branded sneakers, watches and colognes and perfumes.
āBeing president probably cost me money if you really look,ā Trump said. "In fact, I do something that no other president has done, they think maybe George Washington has done.ā
He added: āI contribute my entire salary to the government, back to the government. And Iām doing it again.ā
Another TikTok deal extension
Trump said he is open to extending the deadline for a deal on TikTok once again.
āIād like to see it done,ā he said. āI have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok. TikTok is ā itās very interesting, but itāll be protected.
He later added: "If it needs an extension, I would be willing to give it an extension, might not need it.ā
Last month, Trump to keep TikTok running in the U.S. for to give his administration more time to broker a deal to bring the social media platform under American ownership.
White House officials had believed they were in which the appās operations would have been spun off into a new company based in the U.S. and owned and operated by a majority of . But Beijing hit the brakes after Trump slapped wide-ranging tariffs on nations across the globe.
āWe actually have a deal. We have a group of purchasers, very substantial people. Theyāre going to pay a lot of money. Itās a good thing for us. Itās a good thing for China. Itās going to be, I think, very good," he said. "But because of the fact that Iāve essentially cut off China right now with the tariffs that are so high that theyāre not going to be able to do much business with the United States. But if we make a deal with China Iām sure thatāll be a subject, and itāll be a very easy subject to solve.ā
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Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.
Aamer Madhani, The Associated Press
