Fact-checking if the U.S. government can revoke citizenship
July 15, 2025
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1:43Now PlayingFact-checking if the U.S. government can revoke citizenship
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as posted by the channelPresident Donald Trump said Saturday he is considering revoking comedian Rosie O'Donnell's U.S. citizenship, the latest threat by the president to strip the citizenship of people who have publicly feuded with him.
The president cannot legally take away O'Donnell's citizenship as she was born in the United States. In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a president cannot revoke the citizenship of a U.S.-born person and that under the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment, they may only lose their citizenship if they voluntarily relinquish it.
However, the government can strip naturalized citizens, people born outside the U.S. who received citizenship through a legal process, of their status in two limited ways in a process known as denaturalization.
The government can charge people with naturalization fraud, or they can pursue a civil case arguing the person didn't meet eligibility requirements. However, neither method allows the president to revoke citizenship based on political differences.
PolitiFact's Maria Ramirez Uribe has more.
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