As the U.S. Supreme Court took up a pivotal case on birthright citizenship, President Donald Trump fired off a typically bombastic Truth Social post. In a sprawling rant, he claimed that the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of citizenship was solely meant for “the babies of slaves.”
Trump went on to add that birthright citizenship was not for the people “taking vacations” — or who some people might call refugees — to the U.S. just to give birth. He also asserted, with his trademark factual flexibility, that America is the only country offering birthright citizenship, labeling it “stupid’ and its citizens “suckers.”
While Trump’s post may have set a new record for all-caps outrage, it’s also a breathtaking oversimplification (or perhaps outright misunderstanding) of American history. Let’s set the record straight.
The 14th Amendment: Not just about slavery, actually
Trump’s claim that birthright citizenship was exclusively about the children of slaves is, to put it mildly, a significant oversimplification. The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, reads: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”
Note the use of “all persons” – a phrase that, shockingly, means… all persons. Yes, the amendment was passed in the aftermath of the Civil War to grant citizenship to formerly enslaved individuals, but it wasn’t written with an expiration date or a footnote that said, “only for former slaves, not for babies of tourists or people Trump finds inconvenient.”
In fact, the Supreme Court has consistently affirmed this broad understanding. In United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), the Court ruled that a child born in the U.S. to foreign parents is, in fact, a U.S. citizen – a decision that has stood for over a century. This case alone blows a sizable hole in Trump’s ‘babies of slaves only’ theory.
No, the U.S. isn’t the only country that does this
Trump’s claim that America is the “only country” offering birthright citizenship is equally shaky. While it’s true that many countries have more restrictive policies, at least 30 other nations, including Canada and most of Latin America, offer some form of birthright citizenship. So, despite Trump’s suggestion that the U.S. stands alone as a ‘sucker,’ it’s a relatively common global practice.
Vacation Babies? Not Quite
As for the notion that the 14th Amendment is being abused by “vacationers” popping over to the U.S. to game the system – that’s a classic example of fearmongering without a factual foundation. In reality, “birth tourism” is a tiny fraction of total births in the U.S., and it hardly justifies rewriting one of the most fundamental elements of American citizenship law.
So, while Trump’s post may have been good for rallying his base, it’s not exactly a model of constitutional literacy. But hey, when has that ever stopped him? Good luck to the Supreme Court as it wades through this latest Trump-induced legal fever dream. We would think the SCOTUS would get it right, but these days, who knows for sure?
Published: May 15, 2025 01:39 pm