Donald Trump Has No Clue How Many Articles Are in the Constitution

Pledges to Defend Nonexistent ‘Article 12’ in Meeting with House Republicans

During a highly anticipated meeting with the House GOP’s rank and file on Thursday morning, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump demonstrated that he possesses embarrassingly little knowledge about the U.S. Constitution. 

Talking Points Memo reports that Trump was asked during the meeting whether he would defend Article One, which bestows federal legislative power exclusively to Congress. 

“Not only will I stand up for Article One,” Trump enthusiastically stated, according to the member in the room. “I’ll stand up for Article Two, Article 12, you name it of the Constitution.”

Unfortunately for Trump, Article 12 doesn’t exist. The Constitution has only seven articles. But one GOP congressman, Texas Rep. Blake Farenthold, defended the mistake.  

“He was just listing out numbers,” Farenthold said. “I think he was confusing Articles and Amendments. Remember, this guy doesn’t speak from a TelePrompter. He speaks from the heart.”

Talking Points Memo notes that Trump showed up 20 minutes late for Thursday’s meeting, while Politico reports that several House members skipped it, with one saying he had “a longstanding appointment downtown” and another saying he had to go to the doctor. 

“A third said he had a ‘breakfast meeting,'” Politico reports. “The member — who asked not to be named — then pulled out his schedule for Thursday morning. When he saw that there wasn’t any event on his schedule, the member took out a pen and wrote ‘Breakfast meeting’ on it. ‘See, I have one!’ he joked.”

Many of those who did attend meeting with Trump said they were less than impressed, according to Talking Points Memo: 

“It’s awkward. It’s really awkward,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) said when asked what it was like to sit in a meeting when the nominee doubled down on his stump speech line that Saddam Hussein had killed a lot of terrorists. “There is a lack of enthusiasm. You can feel it.”

Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) said that members asked about his effect on the House and Senate races. One member asked pointedly about Trump’s comments about Hispanic voters.

“He said Hispanics love him,” Dent said, noting that the polls showed no such thing. “All I can say is that I haven’t endorsed him. I believe he has a lot of persuading to do.”