Sorry, Cletus. Donald Trump, Jr. is not a natural born citizen. I can’t go down that road with you.
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I don’t understand, he was born in New York. Thanks.
PPD
“I don’t understand, he was born in New York. Thanks.”
Trump Jr., born in 1977, is a citizen of the US because his dad is a US citizen. But, he was also born a Czech (or Austrian) citizen because his mother, Ivana, was born a Czech citizen and then became an Austrian citizen in 1971. Ivana did not become a naturalized US citizen until 1988.
That makes Trump Jr. a US Citizen, but not a Natural Born citizen (both parents citizens), a requirement of the Constitution for President. (If something, God forbid, happened to Cletus the day after the inauguration, Trump Jr. would be ineligible to step in as President - a constitutional crisis. Same problem for Camela - she’s not eligible either because NEITHER of her parents were Citizens.
That said, there are arguments that could be made that Trump Jr. is natural born because of of his Dad, because in the days of the founders, the wife took the husband’s citizenship. That would imply that a baby’s citizenship depends on his/her father’s. TBD, but it’s a long and painful process to go through to resolve that.
But now, a woman (wife) has her own citizenship. If both your parents are US citizens, you’re a natural born US citizen - you can’t be anything else. If you can be a dual citizen (different citizenship of mother and father), you can’t be natural born. This was all loudly discussed on the Birther threads when 0bama was running - and it’s still contentious. But why anyone would want to take a more liberal interpretation of a phrase in the Constitution, is beyond my comprehension.
Natural born citizen means born on US soil to two citizen parents.
If the Queen of England came to an American Hospital in order to give birth to a child, that child would not be a ‘Natural Born Citizen.’ Tag Line might help.
There are two theories.
One says that an NBC must be born on American soil to two citizen parents, the other says that an NBC must be born on American soil to one citizen parent. (perhaps it must be a father)
Don Jr. doesn’t qualify by the first theory and does qualify by the second theory.
At the time of the founders a wife automatically had the same citizenship as her husband so there would not have been an issue.