Mary Trump says birthright helped Donald Trump’s own family

President-elect Donald Trump’s recent promise to abolish birthright drew sharp criticism from his estranged niece Mary Trump, who stressed that the policy helped establish her own family roots in America.

During an NBC Meet the press In an interview with Kristen Welker that aired Sunday, Trump renewed his promise to end automatic citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants. “We’re going to end this because it’s ridiculous,” Trump said, adding he would try to do so “through executive action.”

This plan faces significant legal hurdles, particularly a Supreme Court precedent that has stood for over 120 years. The seminal case of 1898 United States v. Wong Kim Ark It has been established that persons born on U.S. soil are entitled to citizenship regardless of the status of their parents. When pressed about the inevitable legal challenges, Trump turned to discussing litigation costs, claiming that such cases “take years” and cost “hundreds of billions of dollars.”

Newsweek contacted the Trump-Vance transition team via email Sunday seeking comment.

Constitutional scholars point out that while future presidents can reverse executive orders, amending the Constitution requires extraordinary consensus: a two-thirds majority in the chambers of Congress plus ratification by 38 state legislatures.

Speaking on MSNBC, Mary Trump highlighted the irony of her uncle’s position. “He is a deeply ignorant, cruel man who seems to forget that his father was a first-generation American,” she told host Charles Coleman Jr. “If birthright citizenship didn’t exist, my grandfather would “probably not do.” were allowed to stay here.”

Mary Trump emphasized the historic significance of the 14th Amendment during her MSNBC appearance, noting the stark contrast between her uncle’s position and her family’s history of success as immigrants.

“What he also doesn’t understand is the reason we have the 14th Amendment is because we enslaved an entire race of people,” she said, referring to the amendment’s role in ensuring citizenship for formerly enslaved people the civil war.

The Trump family’s American story began on October 7, 1885, when Friedrich Trump, a 16-year-old German barber, bought a one-way ticket to America. According to historical records, he fled three years of compulsory military service in the Bundeswehr – a decision that would later prove momentous. German historian Roland Paul discovered documents showing that in his later attempt to return to Germany, authorities revoked Frederick’s citizenship and ordered him to leave the country because he had evaded conscription.

For decades, the Trump family kept these German roots quiet. Donald Trump himself claimed Swedish ancestry in his book “The Art of the Deal,” writing that his grandfather “came here from Sweden as a child.” According to Trump’s cousin and family historian John Walter, this forgery was maintained at Fred Trump’s request so as not to upset Jewish friends and customers in the postwar period.

The immigrant legacy also extends to Trump’s maternal side. His mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, came from the Scottish Isle of Lewis, where she lived in humble circumstances as part of a Gaelic-speaking family of ten children.

Born to a fisherman and subsistence farmer in the village of Tong, she worked as a domestic servant after arriving in America in the 1930s before marrying Fred Trump. In 1942 she became a naturalized citizen.

While maintaining his tough stance on immigration, including plans for mass deportations starting with those who have committed crimes, Trump appeared open to protecting “Dreamers” – undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children .

“I will work with the Democrats on a plan,” Trump told Welker, noting that many recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a program that protects eligible young immigrants from deportation, have “been successful.” and own their own companies.

DACA recipients must have entered the United States before age 16, have lived in the country continuously since 2007, completed high school or earned a GED, and have no criminal record. As of March 2023, there were approximately 578,000 active DACA recipients living in the United States.