Will Trump abolish natural-born-citizen rights?
Individuals born in the US automatically receive US citizenship. Just days before the midterm elections, President Trump has announced that he wants to abolish the so-called natural-born-citizens clause. But to do so he'll require a two-thirds majority in Congress, which seems unlikely. For that reason commentators don't believe that Trump will be able to execute his plan.
Empty provocation
Trump knows himself that the US natural-born-citizen clause can't simply be abolished, the Wiener Zeitung is convinced:
“This announcement is tantamount to a historic break, the renunciation of the very US history that has done so much to make the United States the promised land for people the world over. Of course Trump is aware of the symbolic nature of his demand, as well as the provocative effect of his calling into question a political cornerstone of modern US mythology. And no doubt the master of rhetorical resentment is also aware that he doesn't have the means to put his words into practice. ... For that reason this announcement should be taken for what it is: the empty talk of a habitual provocateur.”
A hate-filled election strategy
All the president really wants is to mobilise his supporters for the midterm elections next week, The Guardian criticises:
“The president could not be clearer about his darker intentions. He is determined to do everything to make immigration - and that means race - the explicit centrepiece of these elections. Everything Mr Trump will say over the next seven days will be dedicated to this hate-filled Stratege. ... Mr Trump is consistent, not inconsistent. He seeks to be the president of some of the people, not all of them. A man who hates half of his country has no right to call for a unity that he does not believe in and which, in a heartbeat, he is ready to trash and mock.”
A message to white workers
Avvenire agrees that so soon before the midterm elections the announcement is anything but a coincidence:
“The elections are less than a week away and will be a sort of referendum on Trump. ... In calling citizenship into question he's not only waving a cultural but also an economic flag. Because in recent years the US - and particularly white voters in the small towns, with low and medium wages, have the opposite problem to the one they used to have: today there are too many hands that are eager to work, but too few jobs. ... Trump's open message is: enough of immigration. And for white workers it implies the message that comes across all the better: enough of the competition from immigrants. We'll see on November 6 whether and how well the strategy works.”