Donald Trump Said U.S. Constitution Is ‘Like A Foreign Language,’ Was Unable To Read Text Aloud, New Book Says
In 2017, the first year of his term, Donald Trump agreed to take part in an HBO documentary about the U.S. Constitution. The film also featured every living former president — Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter — reading aloud from the text of the document that set out the country’s founding principles and governmental structure. But to Trump, the Constitution seemed like “a foreign language,” according to revelations in an upcoming book, and reported by The Washington Post.
The HBO documentary also features numerous judges and legislators. But when it comes time for Trump to do his part and read a section of the Constitution, he “struggles and stumbles over the text, blaming others in the room for his mistakes,” according to the book, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America, authored by two Washington Post reporters, Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig.
“It’s like a foreign language,” Trump said, after struggling to read the text of the Constitution, and the authors quote him as saying.
His gripe that the Constitution is supposedly difficult to read has not been Trump’s only issue with the country’s most important founding document. Last year, when Trump received criticism for attempting to host the annual G7 summit at a golf resort that his company owns, he complained that the “emoluments clause” of the Constitution — which prohibits federal officials from receiving foreign money — was “phony,” according to a Politico report.
The book contains a litany of alleged revelations about Trump’s private behavior and statements that appear to reveal his ignorance of the workings of government and the facts of history. During a visit to Pearl Harbor in 2017, as part of a memorial to the victims of the attack that led the U.S. to enter World War II, Trump appeared to have no idea what had happened there, beyond the fact that it was the site of some sort of historic military battle, the authors of A Very Stable Genius reported.
In another disturbing incident, during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into his Russia ties, Trump railed against the U.S. Department of Justice — an entity that traditionally operates independently, to avoid the appearance of political influence.
“This is my Justice Department. They are supposed to be my people,” Trump complained, as quoted by The Washington Post from the book’s account. “This is the ‘Deep State….Mueller’s all over it.”
