Joy Reid Warns Trump That Denaturalizing Citizens Could Lead to Melania’s Deportation: ‘She’s Outta Here’
Joy Reid said if President Donald Trump is serious about denaturalizing and deporting citizens, he should worry about the precedent he would set.
Touring an immigrant prison this week in the Florida Everglades that conservatives have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” Trump said he’s open to deporting citizens.
“They’re not new to our country. They’re old to our country. Many of them were born in our country. I think we ought to get them the hell out of here, too, if you want to know the truth,” he said. “So maybe that will be the next job.”
His remarks followed a memo issued by a lawyer for the Department of Justice, which gives U.S. Attorneys broad discretion over whether to initiate denaturalization proceedings against criminal defendants. This week, Trump also threatened New York Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, who, the president baselessly alleged, may be “here illegally.” Mahmdani, who is a Muslin of South Asian descent, was born in Uganda.
On Thursday’s edition of The Joy Reid Show, the host interviewed Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and said Trump should be careful what he wishes for:
If you give the president of the United States monarchical-like powers to say, “I don’t like your views, I don’t like your take on issues, I don’t that you’re too liberal, you’re not conservative enough, I’m just gonna take away your naturalized citizenship,” well… if we ever get a Democratic president, they could say, “I don’t like Melania Trump. She wasn’t born here. She was born in Slovenia. She is a naturalized citizen. She’s outta here.”
And by the way, Ivana Trump, the late Ivana Trump, who’s buried in the golf course in New Jersey in Donald Trump’s golf club, she wasn’t an American citizen. And three of her children are Don Jr., Eric, and Ivanka.
And maybe the next Democratic president says, “You know what? I don’t like the Trumps. And so we’re gonna denaturalize all of the Trump children, whose mother was a foreigner at the time.”
Reid went on to note that the grandfather of Secretary of State Marco Rubio had his own immigration issues. His grandfather was ordered to be deported in the early 1960s, but remained in the U.S.
“This opens a huge door, Congresswoman, because that means that any future president can decide that they don’t like the Trumps and don’t want them here and want Melania gone. And they could just denaturalize and deport her, and she’d be outta here.”
Watch above via The Joy Reid Show.
