Donald Trump fashions himself a fierce defender of the Constitution—he once said that “protecting our Second Amendment will make America great again.” Appointing pro-life, pro-gun Supreme Court Justices was a Legacy of his first term as president. His image as a stalwart protector of gun rights earned him unwavering support from the National Rifle Association and like-minded conservatives.
Yet, while he continues to brandish the Second Amendment as a political sword, Trump simultaneously attacks, ignores, or actively undermines other foundational constitutional protections, particularly the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments. The inconsistency isn’t merely hypocritical—it’s dangerous to the democratic fabric of America.
As President, Trump has waged a sustained, rather vicious, campaign against institutions and individuals that embody First Amendment freedoms. He labels journalists “enemies of the people,” a phrase lifted from authoritarian playbooks. Public broadcasting institutions like Public Broadcasting System (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) have come under attack, and Trump’s defunding of the Voice of America marks a striking shift in the U.S. government’s bipartisan commitment to press freedoms abroad.
Most recently, Trump cut funding for Harvard University, one of the country’s preeminent academic institutions, which highlights a broader disdain for educational autonomy and intellectual dissent. As a Jew and staunch supporter of Israel, I do not support Harvard’s response to the Gaza protests. Hamas illegally and immorally crossed Israel’s border and savagely murdered 1300 Israeli men, women, and children. Despite this undeniable fact, Jewish students have experienced a painful sense of social isolation on campus; a recent task force studying Anti-Semitism blames the student body’s increasingly hostile views toward Israel. The university continues to embrace more strident and disruptive forms of activism.
However, the First Amendment guarantees not only freedom of the press but also freedom of speech, assembly, and religion. It guarantees that protestors may shout at the top of their voice opinions or positions that I have long opposed at the top of mine. When a president uses his bully pulpit to delegitimize dissenting voices and threaten public institutions with punitive action, it has a chilling effect on free speech. His message is that loyalty is rewarded while criticism is punished, the opposite of what the First Amendment was designed to protect.
Equally troubling are Trump’s views on due process and equal protection under the law—cornerstones of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. He publicly denies due process rights to undocumented immigrants, deporting people “immediately, with no judges or court cases.” His treatment of Kilmer Abrego Garcia and other undocumented residents strikes at the very heart of the Fifth Amendment, which guarantees that no person shall be “deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” The Fourteenth Amendment extends those protections explicitly to all persons—citizens or not—on U.S. soil.
Eliminating judicial review for an entire class of people is not only unconstitutional; it is authoritarian. It undermines the premise that America is a nation of laws, not of men (or one man). If due process can be denied to some, it can eventually be denied to all. This is a slippery slope.
The contradiction between Trump’s reverence for the Second Amendment and his hostility to the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth is stark and irreconcilable. The Constitution is not a Mar-a-Lago buffet from which a president can pick and choose. It is an integrated framework of rights and responsibilities that balance individual liberty with collective governance. The elevation of one amendment above all others while trashing the rest is not the act of a constitutionalist—it is hypocritical and opportunistic.
But Trump’s selective constitutionalism reveals more than hypocrisy; it reveals his authoritarian leanings and a deeper, darker strategy. By appealing to gun rights advocates, he taps into a potent symbol of individual power and resistance to government control. His mass pardons of January 6th insurrectionists are examples of this dangerous approach. And by simultaneously attacking the press, immigrants, and academic institutions, he consolidates political power and undermines checks on executive overreach. It is no coincidence that the amendments under assault are those that limit authoritarianism and protect minority rights. Undocumented immigrants, public media, or elite universities are groups that either lack political clout, fall outside his ideological coalition, and do not advance his authoritarian agenda. In Trump’s constitutional calculus, rights are transactional, not universal.
These views pose a grave threat to our democracy. A true defender of the Constitution must defend it in its entirety, even when doing so is politically inconvenient. That includes upholding the stated rights of unpopular minorities, preserving a free press that may criticize those in power, and ensuring that every person in the United States—regardless of status—is afforded due process.
The American experiment depends on the integrity of its legal and constitutional norms. When our leader claims to defend the Constitution while systematically eroding its foundations, citizens must not be fooled. True patriotism is not expressed by spouting support for the Second Amendment at rallies, but in defending the full scope of constitutional rights from sea to shining sea.
Trump’s selective approach upholds rights when they empower his base but discards them when they constrain his authority. His positions are not merely hypocritical; they are irreconcilable. And in that irreconcilability lies this warning: a leader who respects only the rights that benefit him and his base respects no rights at all.
Mark M. Bello is an attorney and author of 9 Zachary Blake Legal Thriller Series and several other legal themed novels. He has also authored 3 children’s social justice/safety picture books. His books may be purchased at all online booksellers or through his website, at https://www.markmbello.com.
