DID PRESIDENT TRUMP JUST ORDER AWAY HIS UNITED STATES CITIZENSHIP?
President Trump may have just ordered away the American citizenship of millions, including his own citizenship. In other words, his January 21, 2025, executive order on birthright citizenship is more momentous than many people—pundits, legislators, attorneys general, judges, citizens, and the Executive Branch—may realize.
Although the executive order limits its application “to persons who are born within the United States after 30 days from the date of this order,” that limitation applies to only one part—Section 2 setting forth the U.S.’s “policy” for issuing or accepting “documents recognizing United States citizenship.”
The rest of the executive order—including the following statement about the right to citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment—applies retroactively and prospectively:
But the Fourteenth Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States. The Fourteenth Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
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Among the categories of individuals born in the United States and not subject to the jurisdiction thereof, the privilege of United States citizenship does not automatically extend to persons born in the United States . . . when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary (such as, but not limited to, visiting the United States under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program or visiting on a student, work, or tourist visa) and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.
According to the Executive Branch, the Fourteenth Amendment has “never” extended to and has “always” excluded people born on U.S. soil to parents who were lawfully but temporarily in the United States (i.e., to parents who, at the time of the child’s birth, were legally in the U.S. on work, student, or tourist visas rather than as green card holders (a.k.a., permanent resident aliens) or as citizens).
The executive order does not purport to deprive or divest or otherwise alter the citizenship of those people. Rather, it purports to reiterate and confirm what has been true since 1868: when born on U.S. soil, none of those people automatically became citizens of the United States.
You may not be a citizen of the United States if, for example, you were born in New York City in 1946, received a birth certificate, obtained a U.S. passport, paid social security taxes, had children in the U.S., raised them in the U.S., and lived here continuously until now. Those facts are not enough to prove your U.S. citizenship. According to the executive order, you must also know the immigration status of your mother and father at the time you were born in New York City in 1946. If your parents were from abroad—maybe visiting family, vacationing, working, or studying in the U.S.—you are not a U.S. citizen. You never were.
Because you are not a citizen, your children may not be citizens. It depends on your spouse’s status when your children were born. And if your children are not citizens, then your grandchildren may not be citizens.
According to the executive order, those standards for citizenship universally apply throughout all conduct of the Executive Branch:
The Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Commissioner of Social Security shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the regulations and policies of their respective departments and agencies are consistent with this order[.]
The implications are stark. Under these unambiguous standards, all Americans should assess whether they are citizens and how they can prove it. A current U.S. passport cannot prove citizenship under those standards. Even a birth certificate from a U.S. state cannot prove citizenship—at least not without accompanying proof of the immigration or visa status of the baby’s parents at the time of that birth.
Furthermore, these standards apply to the government officials who, under the Constitution, must be citizens in order to hold office: the President, Vice President, Senators, and Representatives. Can each of those government officials prove that he is a United States citizen?
As one example, even President Trump may be unable to prove his U.S. citizenship. His father, Frederick Christ Trump Sr., reportedly was born in 1905 in New York City to German immigrant parents. If Frederick’s parents were not yet permanent resident aliens or citizens, then Frederick could not have been a citizen upon birth, and President Trump could not have derived birthright citizenship from Frederick.
President Trump’s mother, Mary Anne Trump, reportedly was born in Scotland and naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1942, before giving birth to President Trump in New York City in 1946. If that reporting is true, then President Trump would be a citizen (as a child born in the U.S. to a mother who was at that time a U.S. citizen).
But has there been accurate reporting of the date and lawfulness of Mary Anne Trump’s naturalization? Have the source documents been preserved, authenticated, and reviewed? And is there evidence that Mary Anne Trump was President Trump’s biological mother?
Indeed, the executive order adds another layer of complication. It defines “Mother” and “Father,” respectively, as a person’s “female biological progenitor” and “male biological progenitor.” To prove birthright citizenship, therefore, a putative American—including President Trump—may also have to take a DNA test.
In sum, the Executive Order does far more than limit the birthright citizenship rights of future children. The Executive Branch may have just ordered away the American citizenship of millions, and the consequences may be most pronounced for those politicians who, under the Constitution, must be citizens to continue serving in their governmental roles.
-Constantine P. Economides