Days after baselessly accusing two-thirds of the U.S. Supreme Court of being ‘fools and lapdogs’ who are beholden to foreign interests, President Donald Trump has lashed out once more at the court as it prepares to hear arguments on whether he can deny citizenship to children whose parents aren’t in the U.S. legally.
The president took to Truth Social early Monday to lambaste the justices as “incompetent” and accusing them of doing “a great job for the wrong people” with a “ridiculous, dumb, and very internationally divisive ruling” against his claim of emergency tariff powers last week and predicting that they will similarly strike down a January 2025 executive order purporting to ban the children of many immigrants from gaining citizenship under a century-old interpretation of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“The next thing you know they will rule in favor of China and others, who are making an absolute fortune on Birthright Citizenship, by saying the 14th Amendment was NOT written to take care of the ‘babies of slaves,’ which it was as proven by the EXACT TIMING of its construction, filing, and ratification, which perfectly coincided with the END OF THE CIVIL WAR,” he said.
He added that the nine-member court — with his own appointees making up a full third of it — would “find a way to come to the wrong conclusion, one that again will make China, and various other Nations, happy and rich.”
“Let our supreme court keep making decisions that are so bad and deleterious to the future of our Nation – I have a job to do,” he added. He also explained his refusal to properly capitalize the court’s title as a result of his “based on a complete lack of respect” for the court since their decision against him.
Trump’s latest outburst comes with just over a month remaining until the justices hear oral arguments in the administration’s appeal of multiple lower-court decisions against a January 20, 2025 executive order purporting to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States whose parents are either temporary visa holders or lack legal status entirely by mandating that at least one parent must be a permanent resident or citizen for their child to acquire citizenship at birth.
Multiple appellate courts have found the order, which Trump signed within hours of his swearing-in for a second term, to be “blatantly unconstitutional” because it conflicts with both the 14th Amendment’s extension of citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States” except those not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” because their parents are foreign diplomats.
The 14th Amendment was enacted and ratified in the wake of the American Civil War to clarify the status of freed slaves and their children, but it has always been understood to formalize American citizenship as conferred by the legal principle of jus soli, the principle which grants the right of citizenship to anyone born on a state’s territory.
An 1898 Supreme Court ruling, United States v. Wong Kim Ark, held that the Citizenship Clause specifically applied to the children of foreign nationals, and that interpretation has been upheld repeatedly by lower courts in the more than a century since.
Critics have warned that allowing the president to effectively rewrite a core component of the 14th Amendment would create a patchwork system of constitutional rights and citizenship benefits — including voting rights. And lower courts have thus far agreed by striking down the executive order as unconstitutional, or likely so, in a series of decisions.
Under the terms of Trump’s order, children can be denied citizenship if a mother is undocumented or is temporarily legally in the country on a visa, and if the father isn’t a citizen or a lawful permanent resident.
More than 150,000 newborns would be denied citizenship every year under Trump’s order, according to the plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit challenging the policy.
Oral arguments in the case, Trump v. Barbara, are scheduled for April 1.
With additional reporting from Alex Woodward in New York
