Trump Suggests Suspending the Constitution

He doubles down on election fraud claims as White House fires back at suggestion
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 4, 2022 6:14 AM CST
Trump Suggests Suspending the Constitution
Former President Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., Nov. 15, 2022.   (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

When he announced his reelection campaign, Donald Trump eased up on allegations of a stolen election in his speech. The former president ramped things back up in a big way this weekend, with a series of Truth Social posts calling for the suspension of the Constitution.

  • Trump: “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” Trump wrote, per the Hill. He later added, “UNPRECEDENTED FRAUD REQUIRES UNPRECEDENTED CURE!” per the Washington Post.
  • White House: The White House quickly fired back. “Attacking the Constitution and all it stands for is anathema to the soul of our nation and should be universally condemned,” said spokesman Andrew Bates. He called the Constitution a “sacrosanct document," and added, “You cannot only love America when you win."

Trump's new line of attack comes after Elon Musk made public internal Twitter emails about the platform's debate over a 2020 New York Post story about Hunter Biden's laptop. In Trump's view, the emails show that "Big Tech" colluded with Democrats to squelch a negative story, per CNN. “Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!” wrote Trump. At Bloomberg, however, Kurt Wagner writes that the Twitter documents "broke relatively little new ground." And Farhad Manjoo of the New York Times tweeted that they amount to a "half dozen screenshots of content moderation policy executives earnestly debating content moderation policy."

Trump also sought to pull in other top GOP figures into the controversy. “I wonder what Mitch McConnell, the RINOS, and all of the weak Republicans who couldn’t get the Presidential Election of 2020 approved and out of the way fast enough, are thinking now?” he wrote. We might find out. At the Politico Playbook, the authors predict that "every Republican will be asked about Trump's statement" to suspend the Constitution, adding, "If you are a Republican who thinks being asked to take a position on this is just some liberal media trap, consider what you would say if BARACK OBAMA or JOE BIDEN tweeted this." (More Donald Trump stories.)

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