(BrightPress.org) – Former President Donald Trump shared a controversial claim about Nikki Haley’s eligibility for the presidential contest: she wasn’t born a citizen.
The claims are baseless according to constitutional scholars cited by NBC, as Haley was born in South Carolina and as such was a naturalized citizen at the time of her birth. Her parents were immigrants at the time who later applied for and received U.S. citizenship.
The claims come days before the January 15th Iowa primary where Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis are neck and neck in the polls for the much-coveted runner-up spot for the GOP presidential nomination. Both Haley and DeSantis are basing their campaigns on the possibility that Trump will be removed from the contest by Democrat lawfare or be otherwise unable to run.
Harvard Law professor emeritus Laurence Tribe said that the claims were totally “baseless” as far as the Constitution and the law were concerned. He suggested that Trump’s only benefit in lying like this was to affiliate Haley with immigrants and thus the ongoing illegal immigrant crisis. He suggested Trump was trying to “play the race card” against Haley.
The 14th Amendment was implemented following the Civil War and the natural birth clause was included to naturalize slaves born in the states. Many have argued for the removal of the clause. Today it acts as a draw for illegals to come into the country to have babies so they have a legal justification to apply for citizenship later. Trump has argued against birthright citizenship as well.
Trump repeated similar claims about VP Kamala Harris in the run-up to the 2020 election. Trump often repeats conspiracy theories popular with his conservative base, even if they have no factual basis. He’s much like the Democrats in that regard.
Trump claimed that Ted Cruz (R-TX) was ineligible due to being born in Canada when the two were jousting for the 2016 GOP nomination. Cruz’s mother was a U.S. Citizen at the time, which allowed him to be considered naturalized. Trump repeated the claims several times, going so far as threatening to sue, though he never followed up on the threat.
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