{UAH} Can Trump legally revoke someone's US citizenship even if they were born in the United States to parents who are also citizens of the United states in order to deport them to another country?

By Stone Cartwell

I don't know whether to laugh or to cry when I see questions in the vein of "Can Trump really do [_____]?" and invariably discover that the majority of the answers fall along the spectrum of "No, Trump won't do [_____] because it would be illegal / he would need Congress' permission / courts won't let him do it because it says it right here in the Constitution." Because if there is one thing we can say about Trump and his backers is that they are law-abiding people who play by the rules and never do anything illegal for fear of consequences, right?

People, people, people. Have you been asleep for the past 9 years? What on earth has made you think that Trump and the rest of MAGA are the kinds of people who graciously accept that the law puts limits on what they can do to achieve the ends that they want? With everything we know about Trump and his movement, everything that he and they have said and done, out in the open, for years -- in Trump's case, for decades -- how is it that you still believe something being illegal would be enough to stop Trump doing it?

And if he were to do something illegal, who would stop him? The MAGA-dominated Congress, whose craven denizens fear nothing so much as the wrath of his rabid base? The trumpified Supreme Court, which has held explicitly that the law does not apply to him? The legal system, which in half a century had never held that man even slightly accountable for a single goddamned one of his thousands of misdeeds? Federal military and law enforcement agencies, once he's purged them of career public servants and stuffed them to the gills with his single-minded loyalists? His supporters, who literally think he's God, and that anyone opposing him in any way is not only a traitor, but antichrist? Who? Stop living in denial, people. After all these years, at long last, forfuckssake, stop living in denial.

The short answer to the main question is yes, Trump can "legally" do it. He can do it because the people he has put on the Supreme Court have said that he can. He has complete immunity for "official" acts, and the SCOTUS majority made sure to specify that an act that is illegal or not authorized by the Constitution can still be official. Basically, anything Trump does is an official act if Trump says it's an official act. Furthermore, as the Executive, the President is the only branch of government that actually has the muscle to enforce its wishes, and the Trump Judges have held explicitly that he would have unlimited discretion in, and absolute immunity for, any way he uses the federal law enforcement, the Justice Department and the military. See Trump v. United States, 603 U.S. 593 (2024). In other words, as President, Trump will be able to "legally" do things that are illegal, as paradoxical as it sounds. Sure, Congress can, in theory, deny him funds, but in not-theory, Trump will be able legally to send his goons to defenestrate anyone who frustrates his policies in any way. John Roberts has said so. And Congress will very quickly fall in line, because as much as those people love to grandstand for cameras, they've got spines made of styrofoam. They are terrified of mean Tweets. You think they'll actually risk being targets of actual state violence? (The only exception is Liz Cheney, and Trump will almost certainly kill her.)

So yes, Trump can "legally" strip native-born Americans of their US citizenship, detain them and deport them wherever the hell he wants (provided the destination country lets the victims disembark the plane). Will he do it? That's a different question. But at this point, there is nothing there that can legally or practically stop him from doing it if he wants to. (That's why, any not-Ordinary-American fool with a foreign name and/or an accent, who voted for Trump thinking he doesn't need to worry about mass deportations because he and everyone he cares about have US citizenships, is a terminal meat-headed dumbass with no understanding. I guess some people need to learn the hard way. Then again, some people don't learn, period — not the easy way, not the hard way; not at all. As the old Russian expression goes, in his grave will the hunchback find his cure.)

As a practical matter, he doesn't necessarily have to deport people he strips of citizenship. He can strip people of citizenship, and his Congress can enact laws barring non-citizens from working the US, owning real estate, or renting real estate, or using public accommodations, etc. That way, the newly-created non-citizens will take care of their own deportation, either out of the country or out of the world of the living. And the same right-of-center, "reasonable" Trump apologists who rationalize everything Trump and his supporters say and do, will be right back here to tell us this legislation is "reasonable" and not at all a cause for concern.

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