One of President Donald Trump’s most recent and worrisome threats is when he suggests taking away the citizenship of people he opposes.
This has been one of Trump’s most repeated public warnings against political enemies. Former ally Elon Musk and New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, who are both naturalized U.S. citizens, have been the object of this suggestion. And the latest target is his longtime foe Rosie O’Donnell.
Life: Trump Leveled A Baffling Threat At Rosie O’Donnell — Experts Explain Why It’s Truly Terrifying
Earlier this month, Trump posted (again) that he is “giving serious thought to taking away Rosie O’Donnell’s Citizenship. She is not a Great American.” His statement was then reposted by the White House’s official account.
Under his administration, Trump has made revoking someone’s citizenship, or denaturalization, a regular threat. Historically, denaturalization has been used narrowly, such as to take away citizenship from suspected communists during the McCarthy era of the late 1940s and 1950s and from people who lied about being Nazis.
Until now.
Under Trump’s leadership, the Justice Department is now prioritizing aggressive tactics to strip certain Americans of their U.S. citizenship. A June 11 memo from the Department of Justice directs attorneys to “maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law” across 10 broad categories, including those who “pose a potential danger to national security,” or have supported criminal organizations, or the subjective category of “any other cases referred to the Civil Division that the Division determines to be sufficiently important to pursue.”
This memo, combined with Trump’s public threats, “represents a fundamental departure from how denaturalization has traditionally been used, typically as a tool against war criminals and clear cases of fraud, rather than as a weapon against political opponents,” said Cassandra Burke Robertson, a Case Western Reserve University law professor who studies denaturalization. It “changes denaturalization from a legal process into a tool of political intimidation.“
Mae Ngai, a professor of history at Columbia University who studies citizenship, said Trump’s approach to denaturalization compared to his predecessors is “unprecedented, alarming and probably unconstitutional.”
But even if it doesn’t work, the threat might be the point. “The message is, plainly, ‘Do not cross me or I will strip you of your citizenship,’” Ngai said.
“When a president publicly threatens to strip citizenship from political opponents or critics ― whether it’s Rosie O’Donnell for her criticism, Zohran Mamdani for his political positions, or even Elon Musk despite his support ― it signals that citizenship status depends on staying in the administration’s good graces rather than following the law,” Robertson said.
Life: The Funniest Posts From Women This Week (Aug. 30-Sept. 5)
Here’s what you need to know.
Trump can’t legally take away birthright citizenship, despite his efforts.
In the case of O’Donnell and any other citizen who is born in the U.S., the law is clear: Trump can’t take away birthright citizenship.
“Birthright citizenship is nearly impossible to strip — but they will try,” Ngai said, citing ongoing litigation following Trump’s executive order to remove birthright citizenship for people who are born to undocumented parents.
So far, the Supreme Court has held that native-born citizenship cannot be taken away under any circumstances. Robertson cited the 1958 case Trop v. Dulles, which involved a U.S.-born soldier who deserted during World War II, and the court ruled that even this type of conduct couldn’t justify citizenship revocation, calling it “a form of punishment more primitive than torture.”
President Donald Trump (left) keeps questioning the citizenship of his political opponents like New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. Getty Images/HuffPost
Can the U.S. government revoke naturalized citizenship?
People who are naturalized citizens can have their citizenship taken away in exceedingly rare but serious circumstances — and famous naturalized citizens have been the subject of Trump’s ire.
Take Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2018.
Life: Men Are Proud Labubu Lovers Too — And It’s Not Performative
“A lot of people are saying he’s here illegally,” Trump has said of Mamdani, citing false claims about Mamdani’s citizenship status. “We’re going to look at everything.”
The executive branch cannot denaturalize people over political differences, despite what Trump may think, but naturalized citizens can be subject to denaturalization proceedings over reasons like committing fraud or being ineligible for naturalization.
“For naturalized citizens like Musk or Mamdani, the government must prove with ‘clear and convincing evidence’ that citizenship was obtained through fraud or concealment of material facts during the naturalization process,” Robertson said.
“You get the complaint and summons served on you, maybe through the mail, maybe through a process server, and then the court … will hold proceedings … and make a finding of whether or not you should be denaturalized,” Robertson explained.
Life: 6 Signs Of A Happy Dog, According To Veterinarians
What’s particularly concerning is that the government will typically file a civil lawsuit against you when it wants to take away your citizenship, Robertson noted. Civil litigation means people facing these legal threats have fewer constitutional protections than with criminal cases, such as no right to free counsel, no jury trial, and a lower burden of proof.
Denaturalization happens to few, but the warning is for us all.
The Immigrant Legal Resource Center estimates that, from 1990 to 2017, an average of 11 denaturalization cases have been opened per year, with an estimated 25 cases per year being opened under the first Trump administration.
In other words, denaturalization is still quite uncommon, but it does happen. Trump’s political enemies like Musk and Mamdani have the resources to defend their citizenship, but the most vulnerable do not.
“The cases where the government has been successful, those are the ones where the people just didn’t have the resources or ability to fight back, and that’s what’s scary,” Robertson said, citing cases that went forward on minor technicalities, such as the defendant not showing up to court.
She recommended that if you do get a denaturalization petition from the government, you should reach out to the American Civil Liberties Union or your local immigration nonprofit ASAP, because they can connect you to pro bono lawyers who have been willing to take these cases.
But even if you don’t deal with this threat yourself, the potential threat is becoming more credible for naturalized citizens, because the Trump administration is pursuing cases on “minor idiosyncrasies and paperwork,” Robertson said. And that could make any of the immigrants who are naturalized U.S. citizens (there were about 25 million as of 2023)vulnerable to this kind of serious legal action, leading to a chilling effect on Americans’ rights.
Overall, Trump’s threats against named individuals “undermines the security that citizenship is supposed to provide and may discourage naturalized citizens from exercising their First Amendment rights to criticize the government or participate fully in democratic debate,” Robertson said.
“The broader message to immigrant communities is that their status remains vulnerable regardless of how long they’ve been citizens or how law-abiding they are,” Robertson continued. “It’s an authoritarian approach: People’s citizenship depends on their political loyalty rather than their legal standing.”
