Nobody Actually Thinks Trump Has Read The Constitution Cover-To-Cover, Right?

Elie Mystal

The Constitution, including its 27 Amendments, is over 7,500 words long. Nobody actually thinks that Donald Trump has sat down and read the full thing. Right? The American Constitution might be the shortest founding document in the world, but it’s still a legal document. Who honestly thinks that Donald Trump has sat down and read through a 7,500 word legal document? Everything we know about the man tells us that, at best, he had somebody else read it and give him the “highlights.”

Or, think about the question this way: have you read the Constitution, cover-to-cover? Statistically speaking, you haven’t. Only 30% of Americans or so have actually read the whole freaking thing. And of the people who claim to have read it, very few people know what it says in any rigorous way. 

Trump hasn’t read it, and wouldn’t know how to interpret it if he did. There’s a reason most politicians have been to law school. A legal document like the Constitution is not obvious on its face. The Constitution is the fine print of our Republic: most people don’t read the fine print and even fewer can actually debate what it means. 

Come on, be honest, you haven’t read “Article VI,” and I PROMISE YOU Donald Trump hasn’t and would have no idea what it meant if Ivanka read it to him as a bedtime story.

I didn’t choose Article VI at random. I’m not playing a “gotcha” trivia game. Article VI contains the clause prohibiting “religious tests” for holding public office. It is directly on point to Khizr Khan’s charge that Trump hasn’t even read the Constitution. If Trump had read the document, and understood what it meant, he’d at least be trying to explain how his Muslim ban wouldn’t violate the Constitution because it wouldn’t apply (somehow) to people seeking public office. It would be a simple attempted distinction to anybody who has ACTUALLY READ THE CONSTITUTION. 

I mean, that’s not even a lawyer’s answer. A child who had read the Constitution on ABC Mouse would have a more nuanced explanation of the Muslim ban than Donald Trump does. You can tell he hasn’t read the Constitution because he doesn’t even attempt to tailor his positions to fit within the plain meaning of the document. 

But he hasn’t read it. His thoughts on the Constitution are purely impressionistic. He thinks it says certain things based on the vague understanding he’s gotten from other people talking about it on “the shows.” 

Here’s the kicker: he STILL hasn’t read it. He’d rather kick dirt on a Muslim family for accusing him of not reading the Constitution that actually sit down and read the damn thing. If Mr. Khan lent him his copy of the Constitution, it would sit, un-creased, on Trump’s desk. The only way Trump would ever read the Constitution is if you Tweeted it at him, 140 characters at a time. And even then, he’d probably get bored while you were still mired in Article I, talking about those “losers” in Congress. 

Donald Trump has not read the Constitution, will not read the Constitution, and could not understand the Constitution if somebody read it to him. 

His actions prove the Khans’ point. 

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