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Fact Check: Is Donald Trump Ending Dual Citizenship?


President Donald Trump has been attempting to limit birthright citizenship as part of his immigration crackdown, arguing that it encourages illegal migration to the United States.

The courts have stymied those attempts following the president’s executive order barring the children of undocumented immigrants from birthright citizenship. Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit denied the Trump administration’s request to stay a district court’s nationwide preliminary injunction blocking the order’s enforcement. The court concluded that the order likely violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Now, social media posts are suggesting that the president’s immigration policies have gone further by announcing the end of dual citizenship, in which someone is a citizen of the United States and another country at the same time.

The Claim

An image circulating on social media alleged that Trump had announced an end to dual citizenship and had called for “traitors” with multiple passports to be “denaturalized and deported.”

On X, formerly Twitter, a user posted a screenshot purportedly of Trump’s Truth Social account.

The image suggests that on March 30, Trump wrote: “STARTING ON MONDAY, I AM ENDING DUAL CITIZENSHIP UNDER THE ESPIONAGE ACT AND ALL THESE TRAITORS WILL BE ‘DENATURALIZED AND DEPORTED’ TO THE COUNTRY THEY CAME FROM. NO EXCEPTIONS!!!!! AMERICA IS FOR AMERICANS, NOT ALL THESE FOREIGNERS WHO HATE OUR GREAT COUNTRY AND DON’T EVEN PAY TAXES.”

The X post sharing the image received more than 70,000 likes and 3.5 million views, with the poster and other users suggesting that Elon Musk—the billionaire adviser to the president who has Canadian, South African and American citizenship—would have to be deported.

“So…Elon’s being deported, when?” the poster wrote.

Another commenter said: “Does this mean…that Americans will also have their dual citizenship revoked? Like, he’s trapping Americans here and they won’t be able to escape?”

President Donald Trump speaking with members of the press while returning to Washington, D.C., on Air Force One on March 30.

Getty Images

The Facts

The screenshot is fake and never appeared on the president’s Truth Social account. Trump has not made any similar comments about dual citizenship and has praised Musk repeatedly for his contributions to his administration.

The president has even highlighted Musk’s dual citizenship before. In December, facing criticism over the tech CEO’s growing political influence, Trump said Musk was “not taking the presidency” because he was not born in the U.S. and therefore could not be president.

Members of Trump’s immediate family also hold dual citizenship. His wife, Melania Trump, and their son, Barron Trump, are citizens of Slovenia and the U.S. The president is also eligible for dual citizenship in the U.K., where his mother was born, though he has not claimed this.

The community notes feature on X, which allows other users to flag misleading posts, has been applied to several posts featuring the image. One note said: “A viral image purporting to be a screenshot of such a post was fabricated. The post did not appear on Trump’s account.”

The Ruling

False

False.

The viral image purporting to show Trump’s Truth Social post is fake and contains provocative language that does not reflect the president’s stance on dual citizenship. Several of his closest allies and family members would be deported under the policy proposed in the fake post.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek



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