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At first blush, this might seem like a story about Prominent Public Figure A clashing with Prominent Public Figure B in an inconsequential dispute that will generate headlines, but little else. But just below the surface, a different kind of story comes into focus.
NBC News reported on Saturday that Donald Trump threatened to take away comedian Rosie O’Donnell’s U.S. citizenship — because he doesn’t like her. The message he posted to his social media platform read in part:
Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship. She is a Threat to Humanity, and should remain in the wonderful Country of Ireland, if they want her.
At the outset, it’s worth separating what matters from what doesn’t. I don’t much care what precipitated the Republican’s statement, how a comedian could realistically become "a threat to humanity," how or why O’Donnell hurt his feelings, or how the entertainer responded to Trump’s latest offensive.
I do care, however, about an American president asserting a right he does not have as part of an authoritarian-style vision.
To hear Trump tell it, O’Donnell used speech he found objectionable, which has led him to give “serious consideration” to stripping the comedian of her U.S. citizenship. Implicit in the statement is the president’s apparent belief that he has such power.
He does not. As NBC News’ report noted, Trump cannot legally take away Americans’ citizenship because that presidential authority simply doesn’t exist.
Amanda Frost, an expert on citizenship law at the University of Virginia School of Law, told The New York Times, “In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court declared in Afroyim v. Rusk that the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment bars the government from stripping citizenship, stating: ‘In our country the people are sovereign and the government cannot sever its relationship to the people by taking away their citizenship.’”
Trump, however, doesn’t appear to understand this — or more to the point, doesn’t seem to care. An American citizen criticized him in ways he did not like, leading him to believe he should consider taking away his critic’s citizenship, as if this were somehow normal in our constitutional system.
It comes against a backdrop of Trump threatening to deny funding to cities that govern in ways he doesn’t like. Which came on the heels of Trump threatening to prosecute a news organization for running reports he didn’t like. Which came on the heels of Trump musing publicly about arresting a Democratic candidate he doesn’t like. Which came on the heels of Trump floating the possibility of deporting American citizens. Which came on the heels of Trump endorsing the arrest of a Democratic governor who has opposed the White House’s agenda. Which came on the heels of Trump ordering a Justice Department investigation into his Democratic predecessor without cause.
And that’s just from the last month or so.
The idea of two prominent public figures engaging in some kind of “feud” is forgettable, but when an American president with an authoritarian-style vision starts claiming abusive powers he does not have, it’s best not to look away.