Trump Thinks He Can Take Away Citizenship From Anyone He Doesn't Like

[Eugene]

Source: Rolling Stone

Trump Thinks He Can Take Away Citizenship From Anyone He Doesn’t Like

Andrew Perez and Asawin Suebsaeng
Sat, July 12, 2025 at 12:06 PM EDT
4 min read

Since the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump has been trying to end birthright citizenship for the children of immigrants born in the United States, in a direct challenge to the plain language of the Constitution. Now, he’s openly musing about attempting to take away the citizenship of comedian Rosie O’Donnell, who was born here, because he doesn’t like her.

“Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”

To some extent, the irrepressibly catty president of the United States is just barfing his feelings onto the internet. It is highly unlikely O’Donnell will face the loss of her citizenship and basic rights, even during this exceedingly lawless administration. And yet Trump’s threat to a comedian he’s long despised is not happening in a vacuum, in the same way that his threat to criminally investigate Bruce Springsteen, because the rock star said something Trump didn’t like, comes as Trump’s government is, in fact, criminally investigating Trump’s enemies only because they made the president mad. These are all different words in the same sentence in the exact same authoritarian tome.

Trump’s Justice Department has explicitly stated how serious the administration is about prioritizing a large denaturalization push as part of Trump’s broader immigration crackdowns. Privately, Trump has repeatedly told lawyers and others in his second administration that when it comes to certain people he’d want to see lose their citizenship and then be shipped overseas for supposedly “national security” or “crime”-related reasons, he does not see a meaningful distinction between naturalized citizens and those who were born in the U.S.

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Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-thinks-away-citizenship-anyone-160641861.html