Guess What Trump Values Above the Constitution

At several points during the State of the Union on Tuesday, Donald Trump lashed out against congressional Democrats with jeers and insults, as if he were auditioning to play a knockoff Andrew Dice Clay, not speaking as the president of the United States.

In one of those moments, Trump issued an ultimatum: “If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support: The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.” No one on the Democratic side of the aisle stood up, and Trump, as he no doubt intended, told them they should be “ashamed” of themselves.

But I want to focus on the substance of this claim for a moment, that “the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.” Compare this with the presidential oath of office: “I do solemnly swear 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.”

Or compare it with the oath required of federal judges, justices and members of Congress: “I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter, so help me God.”

What these oaths say explicitly is that the first duty of an officer of the United States — from the president to a justice of the Supreme Court to each of the 435 members of the House of Representatives — is to the Constitution of the United States. This is as it should be: The Constitution represents the sovereign authority of the people of the United States, who formed the nation so that they could enjoy republican self-government under a “more perfect union.”

Everything that a president or a Congress or a justice does must be set against this obligation, which is to say, against an obligation to the preservation of American democracy. You cannot sacrifice self-government on an altar built from your own interests, concerns and obsessions.

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Jamelle Bouie became a New York Times Opinion columnist in 2019. Before that he was the chief political correspondent for Slate magazine. He is based in Charlottesville, Va.

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