Forbes46%
Supreme Court Upholds Birthright Citizenship—Which Trump Campaigned Against For Over A Decade 76%
By Alison Durkee0%
6/30/2026, 5:31:05 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 35 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, Post Hoc (False Cause), and Politically Left Leaning Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 37% saturation with 405 hits. Analysis detected 3,407 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,094 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 68% and a BS Rank of 76% (5,254 of 21,887 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 76.00% of the article peer group.
The Supreme Court is set to rule Tuesday on whether President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting birthright citizenship is legal, a landmark ruling that will weigh in on a policy Trump has pushed now for over a decade, opposing widespread automatic citizenship since his first presidential run.
Timeline
Aug.
16, 2015 Trump, then running in the GOP presidential primary, released his immigration plan, which called for an end to birthright citizenship and claimed the practice “remains the biggest magnet for illegal immigration."
Aug.
19, 2015 In an interview with Fox News, Trump falsely claimed children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants “do not have American citizenship” and pledged to “start a process where we take back our country,” claiming birthright citizenship “will have to be tested” and “many lawyers … say it will not hold up in court.”
Aug.
21, 2015 Trump claimed the U.S. was unique in having birthright citizenship—which is false, as dozens of other countries also guarantee citizenship by birth—saying at a rally, “We’re the only place, just about, that’s stupid enough to do it.”
Nov.
13, 2015 Trump repeatedly continued to decry birthright citizenship on the campaign trail, including at a rally in Orlando, Florida, where he said the practice was “over” and “not gonna happen.”
Oct.
30, 2018 Trump continued to oppose birthright citizenship in office and told “Axios on HBO” he intended to issue an executive order to end it, saying the order—which ultimately didn’t happen in Trump’s first term—was “in the process.”
The president claimed to Axios that he could restrict birthright citizenship via executive order, saying, “It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment.
Guess what?
You don’t.”
Oct.
31, 2018 Trump defended his comments on birthright citizenship to reporters, claiming he learned he could restrict it via executive order “after meeting with some very talented legal scholars,” though he would “rather” change the practice “through Congress, because that’s permanent.”
Jan.
23, 2020 While Trump did not fully restrict birthright citizenship, his first administration issued a rule in January 2020 in which the State Department stopped giving tourist visas to people engaging in “birth tourism,” part of a crackdown on people traveling to the U.S. to give birth and secure citizenship for their child—a key argument Trump and Republicans have made for why birthright citizenship needs to be restricted.
May 30, 2023 Trump continued his push to end birthright citizenship during his 2024 presidential race, saying in a video released in May 2023 as part of his “Agenda47” platform he would sign an executive order “making clear to federal agencies … the future children of illegal aliens will not receive automatic U.S. citizenship.”
Dec.
8, 2024 In an interview with “Meet the Press” after winning the 2024 election, Trump responded, “Absolutely,” when asked if he still planned to end birthright citizenship on “day one” of his presidency.
The president said he would change birthright citizenship through an executive order “if we can,” claiming he intended to do so during his first presidency, “but then we had to fix COVID first.”
Jan.
20, 2025 Trump issued his executive order on birthright citizenship as one of his first acts upon taking office, saying as he signed the order that the practice was “ridiculous.”
The president was asked whether he thought the order could be overturned in court, responding that it “could be, I think we have good grounds, but you could be right.”
Jan.
30, 2025 Trump defended his executive order to reporters in the Oval Office, claiming the policy was initially for the “children of slaves” and “wasn't meant for the entire world to occupy the United States”—and predicted the Supreme Court would back the order, saying, “I think we're going to win that case and I look forward to winning it.”
May 10, 2026 In a lengthy Truth Social post slamming the right-leaning justices who had opposed him on tariffs, Trump again predicted the court would rule against him on birthright citizenship and wrote that while he doesn’t “want loyalty” from justices, “I do want and expect it for our Country.”
The president went on to claim a “negative ruling on Birthright Citizenship, on top of the recent Supreme Court Tariff catastrophe, is not Economically sustainable for the United States of America!”
June 11, 2026 Trump has continued to repeatedly slam birthright citizenship ahead of the Supreme Court’s expected ruling, writing on Truth Social on June 11, “The United States of America cannot live with the shackles of Birthright Citizenship.
It is not economically, or otherwise, sustainable, and no other Country in the World, of consequence, does it!”
Big Number
255,000.
That’s the approximate number of children who would have been denied citizenship each year if Trump’s order takes effect, according to the Migration Policy Institute and Penn State’s Population Research Institute.
Key Background
Trump’s order on birthright citizenship was part of the president’s broader attacks on immigration, which has similarly been taking place since before his first term.
The president made headlines when he first announced his candidacy in 2015, when he claimed Mexico was “sending us not the right people” and announced his intention to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
Trump has gone on to institute a number of controversial immigration policies over the course of his two presidential terms, including a travel ban on people from a number of countries, a “family separation” policy in which parents were prosecuted after crossing the border and split up from their children, and a number of restrictions on legal immigration pathways like asylum and refugee admissions.
His administration has also ramped up efforts to detain undocumented immigrants in Trump’s second term, leading to nationwide protests.
The Supreme Court’s ruling on birthright citizenship comes days after the 6-3 conservative court ruled in Trump’s favor in two other immigration cases last week, greenlighting the president’s policy of turning away asylum seekers before they reach the U.S.-Mexico border and the White House ending temporary protections for Haitian and Syrian nationals.
Further Reading
Trump Can’t Restrict Birthright Citizenship, Supreme Court Rules (Forbes)
Trump Demands ‘Loyalty’ From Supreme Court Justices On Birthright Citizenship (Forbes)
Key Supreme Court Justices Skeptical Of Trump’s Limits On Birthright Citizenship—Which Trump Blasts After Hearing (Forbes)
Trump Slams ‘Stupid’ Supreme Court Ahead Of Birthright Citizenship Case (Forbes)
Trump Complains He’ll Lose Birthright Citizenship Case—Continuing Rant Against Supreme Court Tariff Ruling (Forbes)
Supreme Court Limits Judges From Blocking Some Trump Policies—But Punts On Birthright Citizenship Rule (Forbes)
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