No, Trump Did Not Call for the Termination of the Constitution

- December 07, 2022

Snopes published a fact check titled "Did Trump Say Election Fraud Allows for 'Termination' of US Constitution?" to which they said was accurate, however, misleadingly. Others such as The Washington Post, New York Times, Politico, MSNBC, Fox News, and of course, CNN, made more direct claims that Donald Trump "called for the termination of the U.S. Constitution".

The only problem with these claims is that they are inaccurate.


Snopes Misleading Claim

In Snopes "context" section, it states:

In a Truth Social post on Dec. 3, 2022, Trump repeated his claim that the 2020 election results were fraudulent, and argued that this allows "for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution." Many interpreted this to mean he had called for a termination of the Constitution.

They rated this as a "Correct Attribution". 

This of course is misleading in suggesting the meaning of the former Presidents words were "termination of the Constitution".


 The Washington Post, NYT, Politico, MSNBC, CNN, and Others

Other outlets took things even further stating definitively that Trump had "called for the termination of the Constitution". 

"An extraordinary antidemocratic statement from former President Donald J. Trump, suggesting the “termination” of the Constitution to overturn the 2020 election" - The New York Times

The New York Time put it more carefully by using the word "suggesting", but most others were more direct with almost all media outlets highlighting a call for "the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution".


No, Trump Did Not Call for the Termination of the Constitution.

Not only is the excerpt that propagated through the news circuit taken out of context, the interpretation is hardly believable and difficult to discern how anyone could read it in the manner its been reported.  

Here's what Trump actually said:

So, with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC, & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great "Founders" did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!

When the full context is available, it is clear that Trump is stating FRAUD is what allows (as in causes) the termination of rules and regulation.  He is not suggesting that congress should terminate the Constitution. He also said "parts" of the Constitution, not the Constitution as was reported. In other words, fraud is causing violations of the law. 

The intent is clear.

    • He proposed a solution in the previous sentence as a question on what should be done and what he thinks the proper steps for remedy should.
    • Fraud violating the law and parts of the Constitution is consistent with the former Presidents continued claim of a "stolen election" with the primary premise of non-legislative rulings. (aka termination of all rules, regulations, and articles...)
      • Non-legislative rulings have been the premise of Trump's complaint from day 1, although notably, this has been under-reported by the media in favor of conspiracy theories from those like the My Pillow guy.
    • Trump has always been a near-constitutionalist when it comes to the Constitution as a rule of law as his critics are eager to point out.
    • The sentence is clear. Fraud circumvents regulation. 
    • He follows up the sentence with a sentence indicating "the founders" would not like the fraud.

Finally, if there is any question in regards to intent or meaning of words, then the proper journalistic course of action is to question the source. While it appears blatantly obvious as to what Trump meant, if there was any question or concern, questions directed to Trump or his team should have been asked. 

The following day, Trump clearly indicated what the meaning of his sentence was, stating that fraud requires steps to "right the wrong" (which he suggested two different courses of action in his first sentence of the original post), but stated that in no way did he suggest termination of the Constitution. This wasn't backpedaling, this was clarification of what appeared perfectly clear to begin which when the full context was reviewed.

There were a few media outlets that did indeed report the clarification, most did not. Regardless, it should have been clarified to begin with. 

Instead media outlets and fact-checkers took a portion of a sentence that made it sound like Trump's intent was suggesting to terminate the Constitution. They then went and questioned Republican and Democrat leaders before any of them even knew what Trump had said and gave them the shortened out-of-context version. Mike Pence for example stated he had no clue what Trump had even said, but that any suggestion of terminating the constitution was absurd and the media then published headlines like "Pence pushed back on Trump claim".


Summary

While Snopes was technically correct, Trump did say the words in their headline, it was grossly taken out of context and insinuated a different meaning of the words. The remaining media outlets who reported the story where false claims. Regardless of what anyone "thinks" the intent was or how they interpret English, the proper course of action is to seek clarification. In this case not only did these outlets fail to seek clarification, they further ignored clarification when it was given to them.

CNN receives 4 false claims for the 4 articles they reported. 

Notably, both Snopes and Politico did report Trumps clarification. 

Claim: "Trump called for the Constitution to be terminated"

Fact Check Verdict:  FALSE CLAIM 

Claimant:  Newsweek, CNN, The New York Times, Politico, The Washington Post, Fox News, ABC News, CBS News, USA Today, NPR, Reuters, and Snopes.