US President Donald Trump on Tuesday took aim at China, making a sarcastic remark about President Xi Jinping after the US Supreme Court dealt a setback to his efforts to limit birthright citizenship.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump mockingly congratulated China following the court’s decision to uphold the long-established interpretation of the 14th Amendment. The ruling blocked his executive order that sought to deny automatic US citizenship to children born in the country to parents who are in the US illegally or on temporary visas.
“I would like to congratulate President Xi, and the Great Country of China, on their massive Birthright Citizenship WIN!” Trump wrote.
The decision came on the final day of the Supreme Court’s term, which had largely supported Trump’s broad interpretation of presidential authority. However, the justices rejected his attempt to change the constitutional understanding of birthright citizenship through executive action.
In a separate Truth Social post, Trump urged Congress to act swiftly to change the law through legislation.
“The Supreme Court upheld Birthright Citizenship, which is too bad for our Country, but we can easily make it up in Congress through Legislation, with the support of the President, that has now been determined during this process,” Trump wrote.
He added that a constitutional amendment would not be required, saying, “No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary! Congress should start today to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship. They will have my complete and total support!”
Claims of ‘Birth Tourism’
Earlier this year, conservative author Peter Schweizer alleged in his book The Invisible Coup that China had taken advantage of US birthright citizenship laws through what he described as “birth tourism” – a practice in which foreign nationals travel to the United States to give birth so their children automatically receive US citizenship.
Earlier this year, conservative author Peter Schweizer alleged in his book The Invisible Coup that China had taken advantage of US birthright citizenship laws through what he described as “birth tourism.”
According to Schweizer, Beijing has followed a long-term strategy of encouraging expectant mothers to travel to the United States to give birth, allowing their children to automatically obtain US citizenship under the country’s birthright citizenship laws.
According to Schweizer, many of these children later return to China, where they are raised before eventually moving back to the United States as adults with full US citizenship rights.
In The Invisible Coup, Schweizer argues that China is pursuing more than just economic competition with the United States. He claims Beijing is exploiting America’s birthright citizenship laws as part of a long-term strategy, describing it as “weaponising US birthright citizenship rules” to create what he calls a “time bomb” within the country.
Schweizer estimates that between 750,000 and 1.5 million Chinese nationals are US citizens because they were born in the United States. However, these figures have not been independently verified or substantiated by official data.