Working on Trump's behalf, his lawyers submitted the following legal motion, claiming that the president of the United States does not have to preserve, protect or defend the constitution: "The Presidential oath, which the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment surely knew, requires the President to swear to 'preserve, protect and defend' the Constitution — not to 'support' the Constitution... because the framers chose to define the group of people subject to Section Three by an oath to 'support' the Constitution of the United States, and not by an oath to 'preserve, protect and defend' the Constitution. ... the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment never intended for it to apply to the President."
