Donald J. Trump did what no other president ever deigned and personally attended the U.S. Supreme Court’s hearing on the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship question, undoubtedly believing that the force of his presence alone would intimidate the justices into ruling from the bench that “Trump is right and it’s all a big misunderstanding, the 14th Amendment doesn’t mean what it says, reversed and remanded…” it didn’t go according to plan. Having sat for 14 whole minutes in the SCOTUS Chambers, without being the center of attention, and unable to get up and yell at everyone, Trump disrespected the justices, the litigants, and the country by walking out. Yes. He did.
Apparently, he wasn’t impressed, perhaps it wasn’t going well, and in a way – he really should be thankful. One would think that he’d hate to be the only president in history to withdraw two cabinet members over a year into his term on account of naming non-citizens to two of the highest positions in the federal government.
Trump has a problem. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s parents were definitely not American citizens when Rubio was born in Florida, and – though there is less clear “proof,” it seems to be a near physical impossibility that Kash Patel’s parents were U.S. citizens upon his birth, given Mum-Dad Patel moved to New York in the late 1970s and had young Ka$h in 1980 – generally it takes a minimum of five years for naturalization to process… at warp speed. (Many on Facebook insist that the net has been scrubbed of “proof” as to when Patel’s parents moved to New York, and there are accusations that his father never did become a U.S. citizen.) So, yes, under Donald Trump’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment and per his executive order, the United States Secretary of State and the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation are not Americans.
Awkward.
Good thing that Trump didn’t nominate Mehmet Oz to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, or that would be a third “non-American” sitting in the president’s cabinet – at least under Donald Trump’s reading of the 14th Amendment.
One gets the sense that there are a few people within Trump’s inner orbit hoping for a loss at the SCOTUS today, (Rubio, Patel), but Trump is not one of them. He believes that birthright citizenship is the “stupidest” thing a country can have – this, despite the near inarguable proof that, of all the things that made the U.S. “great,” perhaps none played as powerful a role as birthright citizenship to all born here.
But Trump lasted only 14 minutes through the argument – apparently reading the room (We hope, and so does Kash):
So, THAT went well. 🤡 #14A
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) 2026-04-01T16:30:20.926Z
Actually, we are one of many countries smart enough to offer birthright citizenship. It is common in the Western world, where Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and most of Latin America have the same policy. Good thing, right, Marco? It would sure be embarrassing to have the State Department yank the Secretary of State’s passport on account of being, well – Cuban.
This case would not have even gotten to the SCOTUS absent Supreme Court corruption and the willingness of at least four justices to do Donald Trump’s bidding on behalf of “real Americans,” the type one can “tell” just with a glance. You know? White skin, or in the case of Rubio or Patel, the red hat. It is all who you know.
We could tell by Trump’s choices in wives that he only had a problem with “some” immigrants; now it is just as apparent within his choice of cabinet. It would have been interesting had Marco and Ka$h attended the hearing today, too – sitting on the other side of the room.
Maybe they’d have stayed through the full hearing – liking what they heard.
Jason Miciak is an editor at large for Politizoom, a guest columnist for Rawstory, past associate editor for Occupy Democrats. Please follow on Bluesky and I can be reached at [email protected]
