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\n What do the world\u2019s richest man, a candidate for New York City\u2019s top job and a comedian who once co-hosted \u201cThe View\u201d have in common?\n <\/p>\n
\n In recent weeks, President Donald <\/strong>Trump has made comments implying their US citizenship could be in jeopardy.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump told reporters he\u2019d look into the possibility of deporting Elon Musk. He threatened to arrest Zohran Mamdani. And he posted on social media that he\u2019s seriously considering revoking Rosie O\u2019Donnell\u2019s citizenship.\n <\/p>\n \n The comments come as his administration is also sharing broader plans to prioritize denaturalization<\/a>, the legal process used to strip individuals of their citizenship.\n <\/p>\n \n What exactly did Trump say, how likely is any of this to happen, and what\u2019s the broader context around these statements?\n <\/p>\n \n Here\u2019s a look at some key questions and answers.\n <\/p>\n \n Asked by a reporter earlier this month whether he\u2019d deport Musk, Trump said<\/a>, \u201cI don\u2019t know, I mean, we\u2019ll have to take a look.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n He made a similar statement when asked by another reporter what he\u2019d do if Mamdani defies US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in New York City.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe\u2019ll have to arrest him. Look, we don\u2019t need a communist in this country, but if we have one, I\u2019m going to be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation,\u201d Trump said<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n The president went on to add: \u201cA lot of people are saying that he\u2019s here illegally. We\u2019re going to look at everything.\u201d There is no evidence that Mamdani is in the country illegally, though a conservative lawmaker has called for an investigation into his citizenship.\n <\/p>\n \n Musk and Mamdani are both naturalized US citizens. Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, and became a US citizen in 2002, according to biographies of the billionaire. Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, and became a US citizen in 2018<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Regarding O\u2019Donnell, Trump posted on Truth Social that the comedian \u201cis not in the best interests of our Great Country.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship,\u201d Trump wrote<\/a>, calling the US-born actress a \u201cThreat to Humanity.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n It was the latest volley in a longrunning feud between Trump and O\u2019Donnell that\u2019s frequently played out on social media. Trump hasn\u2019t said what prompted his latest post.\n <\/p>\n \n O\u2019Donnell, who moved to Ireland<\/a> with her 12-year-old child in January, had recently criticized how his administration handled devastating floods<\/a> in Texas. O\u2019Donnell said earlier this year that she was in the process of getting Irish citizenship as she has Irish grandparents.\n <\/p>\n \n The US law used to revoke the citizenship of naturalized Americans<\/a> outlines two general grounds for such cases:\n <\/p>\n \n -Illegal procurement of naturalization\n <\/p>\n \n -Concealment of a material fact or willful misrepresentation\n <\/p>\n \n For years the statute was used largely to target war criminals, including former Nazis who lied their way into becoming American citizens.\n <\/p>\n \n But denaturalization is rare. And for the government, accusing someone of concealing a material fact in their application or becoming a citizen illegally is just the beginning.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt still has to be a process which happens before a federal district court, and \u2026 the government has the burden of proving it by clear and convincing evidence,\u201d says Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.\n <\/p>\n \n And winning that case in court can be difficult.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cTrump cannot denaturalize either Musk or Mamdani. Only a court can. And there\u2019s a process. And a high bar for that,\u201d Chishti says.\n <\/p>\n How have Musk, Mamdani and O\u2019Donnell responded?<\/p>\n \n Musk:<\/strong> In response to a video of Trump\u2019s remarks shared on X, Musk said<\/a>: \u201cSo tempting to escalate this. So, so tempting. But I will refrain for now.\u201d Musk hasn\u2019t responded to an inquiry from CNN about Trump\u2019s comments. In the past, the billionaire has denied accusations<\/a> that he began his career working illegally in the US.\n <\/p>\n \n Mamdani:<\/strong> The New York mayoral hopeful decried the president\u2019s comments<\/a> in a press briefing the next day: \u201cYesterday, Donald Trump said that I should be arrested, he said that I should be deported, he said that I should be denaturalized, and he said those things about me, someone who stands to be the first immigrant mayor of this city in generations, someone who would also be the first Muslim and the first South Asian mayor in the city\u2019s history. And he said these things less so because of who I am, because of where I come from, because of how I look or how I speak. And more so because he wants to distract from what I fight for.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n O\u2019Donnell: <\/strong>The onetime cohost of \u2018The View\u2019 fired back on Instagram<\/a>, comparing Trump to a notoriously petulant and evil \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d character: <\/strong>\u201cyou want to revoke my citizenship? go ahead and try, king joffrey with a tangerine spray tan. i\u2019m not yours to silence. i never was.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n O\u2019Donnell is a US citizen who was born on New York\u2019s Long Island.\n <\/p>\n \n Experts say a president can\u2019t unilaterally take away the citizenship of someone who, like O\u2019Donnell, was born in the US. The law<\/a> outlines a series of circumstances under which someone can lose their citizenship if they perform certain actions voluntarily \u201cwith the intention of relinquishing United States nationality.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cUnder the law, there is no mechanism for any natural-born United States citizen to lose their citizenship other than by renunciation (giving it up voluntarily) or death,\u201d Hoppock says. \u201cEven if Congress created some law making it possible, the Supreme Court has held that such a law would be unconstitutional<\/a>.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Musk, Mamdani and O\u2019Donnell are all high-profile figures whose political differences with the president are well known. But Trump\u2019s comments regarding their citizenship aren\u2019t happening in a vacuum.\n <\/p>\n \n In the recent past, denaturalizations were rare, averaging only 11 cases per year between 1990 and 2017, according to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center<\/a>. The number of filings increased after the Justice Department opened an office focused on denaturalization during Trump\u2019s first term.\n <\/p>\n \n That office was quietly closed during the Biden administration, but the second Trump administration has made no secret of its desire to increase denaturalization as part of its immigration crackdowns. Stephen Miller has vowed the renewed effort will be \u201cturbocharged<\/a>.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n And a memo issued by the Justice Department last month directed attorneys in the civil division to prioritize denaturalization \u201cin all cases permitted by law.\u201d The memo also suggests that US attorneys\u2019 offices across the country should flag cases where they may be able to initiate denaturalization proceedings.\n <\/p>\n \n It\u2019s unclear whether the Trump administration will act on the President\u2019s comments referencing the citizenship of Musk, Mamdani or O\u2019Donnell.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cTrump\u2019s words don\u2019t always tell us what he\u2019s going to do. It\u2019s sort of hard to know what to make of it,\u201d says Matthew Hoppock, an immigration attorney in Kansas who\u2019s represented clients in denaturalization proceedings.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI don\u2019t know if we should take him at his word, because a lot of these (comments) are not planned statements; they\u2019re in response to things that journalists say,\u201d he adds.\n <\/p>\n \n And in the past, when the Trump administration announced plans to increase denaturalization during his first administration, the number of cases officials ultimately pursued was smaller than promised.\n <\/p>\n \n During the first Trump administration, US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced<\/a> it would refer 1,600 denaturalization cases to the Department of Justice.\n <\/p>\n \n In the end, just over 100 denaturalization cases were filed during Trump\u2019s first term, according to the Justice Department<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Earlier this month, Justice Department spokesman Chad Gilmartin said five denaturalization cases had been filed since Trump\u2019s return to power. \u201cMORE TO COME,\u201d he wrote on X in a series of posts that included a page from the memo<\/a> outlining the Justice Department\u2019s updated guidelines for the practice. Gilmartin\u2019s post did not provide additional details about the filed denaturalization cases.\n <\/p>\n \n A June press release from the department describes the recent denaturalization<\/a> of a former US Army soldier who pleaded guilty in 2014 to receiving child pornography<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n The Justice Department\u2019s recent memo notes that attorneys should aim their denaturalization work to target anyone who poses \u201ca potential danger to national security.\u201d It also says people who\u2019ve committed violent crimes, are members or associates of gangs and drug cartels or have committed fraud should be prioritized.\n <\/p>\n \n Some immigration law experts have expressed concern that the memo could lead to the administration retroactively searching for missteps in the naturalization process of perceived political opponents.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe politicization of citizenship rights is something that really worries me,\u201d Cassandra Burke Robertson, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University, told CNN<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n The Justice Department told CNN in a statement earlier this month that denaturalization proceedings \u201cwill only be pursued as permitted by law and supported by evidence against individuals who illegally procured or misrepresented facts in the naturalization process.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Chishti, of the Migration Policy Institute, says Trump\u2019s comments about Musk and Mamdani signify a notable shift in the way denaturalization is being discussed.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThis is a totally different chapter of going after your political enemies that has no precedent really,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not that we have had no record of denaturalization. But political animus has never raised its ugly head in our process. This seems clearly driven by political motivation. And that\u2019s unfortunate.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Hoppock says the president\u2019s recent comments about O\u2019Donnell appear to be in a similar vein.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s an extremely concerning signal from a President that seems to have no concern for the Constitution,\u201d he wrote in an email.\n <\/p>\n \n When asked for a response, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson did not address the specific claims made by Chishti and Hoppock, but questioned their expertise and noted they\u2019d donated in the past to Democrats.\n <\/p>\n \n Taken alone, Chishti said Trump\u2019s comments about Musk and Mamdani might not have much of an impact.<\/strong> But coupled with the government deciding to revoke visas and green cards for people based on political opinions and foreign policy<\/a>, he says, the potential chilling effect is clear.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cPeople, even naturalized citizens, will start being careful about anything they say. Because\u2026even the success of the case is not important. It\u2019s the fact that\u2026exercising your First Amendment right of expressing your opinion could land you in a denaturalization proceeding. That\u2019s very troubling,\u201d Chishti says.\n <\/p>\n ![\"Elon](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gettyimages-2198392086-20250216071904949.jpg\")
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