Could Trump Strip U.S Citizenship From Elon Musk, Zohran Mamdani Or Rosie O’Donnell?
What do the worlds richest man, a candidate for New York Citys top job, and a comedian who once co-hosted The View have in common?
Over the past few weeks, President Donald Trump has suggested their U.S. citizenship could be at risk.
He told reporters hed explore deporting Elon Musk, threatened to arrest Zohran Mamdani, and said on social media that revoking Rosie ODonnells citizenship is on the table.
Those remarks come as his administration rolls out a broader push to prioritize denaturalization, the legal tool used to strip people of their citizenship. what exactly did Trump say, how likely is any of this to happen, and what bigger picture should we keep in mind?
Heres A Quick Look At The Main Questions-And-Answers.
“We’ll have to arrest him. Look, we don’t need a communist in this country, but if we have one, I’m going to be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation,” Trump said.
According to “ABC NEWS” The president went on to add: “A lot of people are saying that he’s here illegally. We’re going to look at everything.” There is no evidence that Mamdani is in the country illegally, though a conservative lawmaker has called for an investigation into his citizenship.
Musk and Mamdani are both naturalized US citizens. Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, and became a US citizen in 2002, according to biographies of the billionaire. Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, and became a US citizen in 2018.
Regarding O’Donnell, Trump posted on Truth Social that the comedian “is not in the best interests of our Great Country.”
“I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship,” Trump wrote, calling the US-born actress a “Threat to Humanity.”
It was the latest volley in a long-running feud between Trump and O’Donnell that’s frequently played out on social media. Trump hasn’t said what prompted his latest post.
O’Donnell, who moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January, recently called out the White House for its slow response to serious floods in Texas. She added that because both her grandparents were born there, she is now working on getting Irish citizenship.
How Have Musk, Mamdani, And O’Donnell Reacted?
(AFP/Getty Images)
Musk: After a clip of Trumps remarks appeared on X, Musk wrote, “So tempting to escalate this. So, so tempting. But I will refrain for now.” He has yet to answer C.N.N question about the video. In earlier interviews he insisted that he did not start his career in the U.S. while breaking the law.
Mamdani: The New York mayoral candidate slammed Donald Trumps comments the day after the press briefing. Yesterday, he said I should be arrested, that I should be deported, that I should lose my citizenship-and he meant those words for a person who could be this citys first immigrant, first Muslim, and first South Asian mayor in generations. He didn’t say them only because of my name, my skin, or my accent. He said them because my fight bothers him more than I ever could.
ODonnell: The former View co-host shot back on Instagram, comparing Trump to a petulant villain from Game of Thrones. You want to revoke my citizenship? Go ahead and try, king Joffrey with a tangerine spray tan. I’m not yours to silence. I never was.
Where’s The Larger Story Behind These Exchanges?
Elon Musk, Mamdani, and ODonnell all command huge followings, and their issues with the President are hardly a secret. Trumps remarks about the citizenship of certain high-profile Americans have not come out of nowhere.
Between 1990 and 2017, the U.S. government yanked the citizenship of roughly eleven people each year, according to data from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. That number shot up after the Justice Department opened a denaturalization unit during Trumps first term.
Biden later let that unit fade away, yet a new Trump White House has already signaled it would revive the project as part of a wider immigration crackdown. Still-Stephen Miller has promised the push will now be turbocharged.
Last month, the Justice Department sent a memo telling civil-division lawyers to make denaturalization a top priority in every case where the law allows. It also urged U.S. attorneys around the country to spot and flag any file that could lead to a de-citizenship effort.
How Hard Will A Second Trump Term Press This Strategy?.
For now, no one can say whether the new administration will turn the Presidents Twitter musings about Musk, Mamdani, or ODonnell into real lawsuits.
Trump’s comments often leave many of us scratching our heads, including Matthew Hoppock, a Kansas immigration lawyer who has seen several people fight to keep their U.S. citizenship. Hoppock admits that the former president’s words do not always give a clear roadmap of his next move; they can sound serious but also pop up as off-the-cuff reactions to reporters.
Because those remarks come in a flash, Hoppock is still unsure whether anyone should believe them fully-most of the time they were never written as a formal policy speech.
Reflecting on the past, he recalls that when the first Trump term began, the White House promised a big push to yank citizenship from a number of people, yet the actual number of cases moved forward ended up being much lower than the bold headlines suggested.
Back in that same White House term, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services publicly declared it would hand over 1,600 cases to the Justice Department-as a rule of thumb from inside the government, officials usually did not reach even that quota.
