Trump Is Coming for Your Citizenship

Jonathan V. Last / The Bulwark

Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden. (photo: Alex Brandon/AP)

05 July 25

Your citizenship won’t save you any more than Congress, or the laws, or the courts do.

Last week Rep. Andy Ogles sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi requesting that she open an investigation of Zohran Mamdani. The purpose, Ogles explained, was to explore whether or not the Trump administration could denaturalize Mamdani—meaning, strip him of his citizenship.

When Trump’s spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, was asked about the letter, she said that if Ogles’s allegations against Mamdani were true then yes, the New York City Democrat “should be investigated.”1

This followed a June 11 Department of Justice memo telling lawyers in the Civil Division that the president commands them to “prioritize and maximally pursue denaturalization proceedings in all cases permitted by law and supported by the evidence.”

It sounds like crazy talk. Zohran Mamdani was born in Uganda, but has lived in America since he was 7. He became a U.S. citizen in 2018.

Donald Trump can’t just strip him of his citizenship, can he?

The answer is kind of terrifying:

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