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"He doesn’t know what he’s talking about," Mary Trump recently said of her uncle's plan to end birthright citizenship.
Mary Trump doesn't think her uncle's plan to end birthright citizenship will go anywhere — but that doesn't make him any less "despicable" for it.
The clinical psychologist and author recently slammed the president-elect's proposed policy, telling MSNBC that the outlandish suggestion just demonstrates how little he knows about the legislative process — and even the Constitution.
Donald Trump recently doubled down on his call to end birthright citizenship, which grants those born in the United States citizenship regardless of their parents' citizenship, during an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, in which he told host Kristen Welker that “we have to end it."
When Welker noted that birthright citizenship is enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment, which cannot be overturned without the support of at least two-thirds of Congress, the president-elect responded: “Well, we’re going to have to get it changed. Maybe have to go back to the people.”
Donald Trump also falsely claimed that “We’re the only country that has it" — the United States is one of 33 countries that has birthright citizenship. To his niece, it's clear "he doesn’t know what he’s talking about."
"I think that’s the first time he’s ever heard any part of the Constitution in his life," Mary Trump said. “He’s a deeply ignorant, cruel man who seems to forget that his father was a first-generation American. So, if it hadn’t been for birthright citizenship, my grandfather probably wouldn’t have been allowed to stay here.”
As Trump noted, her uncle's mother was born in Scotland, and his father’s parents were both born in the Kingdom of Bavaria. Though she also asserted that it isn't immigrants like his parents the president-elect wants to target, but rather that "the immigrants Donald hates are people of color."
"What he also doesn’t understand is the reason why we have the Fourteenth Amendment was because we enslaved an entire race of people, and it was to ensure that after the Civil War was over and they were freed, they were, in short, protected by citizenship being conferred upon them," Trump said."
“So, it’s a power grab," she continued. "I don’t think there is any mechanism by which he can make it happen, but this is another instance in which we are in the unfortunate position of having to rely on Republicans to do the right thing and protect American citizens."
