"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances" (US Const. Amend. I).

The First Amendment of the United States Constitution is unquestionably one of the most important pieces of legislation that exists in American society that defines and preserves democracy and liberty. However, president-elect Donald Trump believes this amendment and the rights it defends offers too much protection.

"Our press is allowed to say whatever they want and get away with it. And I think we should go to a system where if they do something wrong—I'm a big believer, tremendous believer of the freedom of the press, nobody believes it stronger than me—but if they make terrible, terrible mistakes and those mistakes are made on purpose to injure people, and I'm not just talking about me, I'm talking about anybody else, then yes, I think you should have the ability to sue them."

It's almost like Trump forgot that you can, in fact, sue someone in the United States for forms of defamation, otherwise known as libel or slander. The difference between libel and slander is that libel is written and slander is spoken. So, I don't understand what Trump is asking for considering defamation is a plausible reason to sue someone in the United States. Is he saying that anyone who writes or says anything that could be construed as libelous or slanderous should be arrested immediately, not sued via a civil suit?

In this same interview, Trump stated that he believes the United States should have laws against libel and slander that are similar to that of the United Kingdom. In reality, the US and the UK already have very similar laws regarding libel and slander, especially after the UK's Defamation Act of 2013 that amended their old defamation legislation by extending its protections and calling for evidence of "serious harm."

So, again, I don't really understand what Trump is asking for, and I sincerely question his knowledge of both the US Constitution and current international laws. Actually, I don't even question his knowledge on these things anymore because it seems abundantly clear that he has no grasp of them. Mind you, this is the same man who whines about how offended he is by SNL skits and believes them to be slanderous despite the fact that SNL and other programs are rather accurate in their depictions. To me, it sounds like he just wants people to stop bad-mouthing him because his feelings are being hurt.

I imagine if Trump were to read this, he'd accuse me of libel, and to that, I'd say bring it on.