The biggest news from Sunday's "Meet the Press" was a non-answer. Kristen Welker asked President Trump about his constitutional obligations, "Don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?" Trump replied, "I don't know."
Do viewers know? Yes, many do, but many other American news consumers could use a refresher course about the co-equal branches of government. Right now, newsrooms need to do a better job of incorporating Constitution 101 into their reporting. (And while we're at it, maybe "Schoolhouse Rock" needs to make a comeback.)
What are the concrete differences between democracy and autocracy? Why did the US founders set up a system of checks and balances? Is the system working as intended? Why exactly are Trump's power grabs unprecedented? What does it mean that Congress has abdicated its power of the purse?
All of these questions require some unpacking, some explaining, to answer. But it really is a public service to do so.
Just anecdotally, I've noticed a real hunger for stories that explain what Trump can and can't do. By far my most-shared post on Bluesky this spring was a CNN clip holding up the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 on air and finding nothing in the law that allows a president to defund PBS and NPR.
He's going to try anyway. But I'd argue that too much of the news coverage about Trump's anti-PBS executive order adopted his framing and presented it as though he does have the power to make public media funding disappear.
Trump does not have that power. And the chaos and confusion of his second term has made it difficult for reporters and viewers alike to keep up — making it easier for overreach to go unnoticed or unchecked. But our job is not just to report the news, but to contextualize, explain and educate.
