by Former President Donald J. Trump has drawn on his brand of nativism to accuse a political opponent of color — this time, Nikki Haley — of not being a real American eligible for the presidency while defending his own election eligibility under the Constitution. .
About his social networking site On Monday, Trump republished a report from The Gateway Pundit, an influential website in the pro-Trump community that traffics in all manner of conspiracy theories, casting doubt on Haley’s U.S. citizenship as polls show she is cutting Trump’s advantage. in New Hampshire. The report falsely claims that because Ms. Haley’s Indian immigrant parents were not yet citizens when she was born in South Carolina, she is disqualified “for presidential or vice-presidential candidacy under the 12th Amendment.”
Ms. Haley was born in the United States in 1972, automatically becoming a citizen.
Trump has done this before. His political rise was fueled by his false and racist claim that Barack Obama, then president, was born in Kenya and was therefore ineligible for the White House. In 2016, he accused his closest rival that election year, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, of being ineligible for election because he was born in Canada to an American mother.
But this time there’s an added twist: Trump is fighting legal efforts in several states to declare him ineligible for election under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, cases that have so far been successful in Colorado and Maine.
The Constitution establishes very few standards For presidential candidates: You must be at least 35 years old, be a “natural-born” citizen, and have been a resident of the United States for 14 years. Section Three of the 14th Amendment, passed after the Civil War, added that anyone who participated in or aided an “insurrection” against the United States after taking an oath to support the Constitution was ineligible to “hold any office, civil or military.” ”.
Trump has previously called for an end to “birthright citizenship.”
The question of Trump’s eligibility under the insurrection clause is now before the Supreme Court.
