MaddowBlog-Following National Guard shooting, Trump vows to 'denaturalize migrants'
Last edited Wed Dec 3, 2025, 07:27 PM - Edit history (1)
The president has long talked about stripping citizenship from naturalized Americans. Those plans have now reached a new level.
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/following-national-guard-shooting-trump-vows-to-denaturalize-migrants
But as important as these developments were (and are), its also worth dwelling on something else the president included as part of his longer tirade. Reuters reported:
Trump said he would end all federal benefits and subsidies for non-citizens, adding he would denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility and deport any foreign national deemed a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western civilization.
If it isnt obvious, many Americans werent born in the United States and became citizens through the naturalization process. What
Trump endorsed online is a policy in which his administration would assert the authority to denaturalize those people, stripping naturalized Americans of their citizenship.
The ambitions are not altogether new. In June, Trumps Justice Department took some steps in this direction. But in the wake of last weeks National Guard shooting, the White House appears eager to push this to a new level.
Reporter: You said that you might denaturalize American citizens?
Trump: If we have criminals that came in and were naturalized through Biden or somebody that didnâtâ know what they were doingâif I have the power to do it⦠I would denaturalize
— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2025-11-30T23:18:19.278Z
.....The New York Times reported, He did not provide details about how he would go about it, or provide specific evidence about problems created by immigrants. Under federal law, U.S. citizens can generally only be denaturalized if they are found to have concealed material facts about their background in gaining citizenship or to have misrepresented themselves in the process.
Whether Trump and his team intend to go further than the law allows remains to be seen although if the White House starts taking citizenship away from Americans, the possibilities for rampant abuse appear inevitable. Watch this space.