Did Barron Trump Benefit from Birthright Citizenship?

But this "fact" wasn't "fun," nor was it a fact at all. Although the referenced dates were accurate -- Barron Trump was born in March 2006, and his mother Melania, who came to the United States from Slovenia in 1996, didn't become a United States citizen until four months later — the principle of birthright citizenship was misapplied to Barron Trump.

Birthright citizenship holds that any child born on United States soil, regardless of the nationalities of that child's parents, becomes a U.S. citizen at birth. This constitutional principle stems from the 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868, a few years after the end of the Civil War:

The 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil, was ratified in 1868 after the Civil War so that recently-freed slaves could become citizens.

“All person born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” the Amendment reads.

Birthright citizenship, or jus soli, a legal term that means “right of the soil,” is the right guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, and upheld by the Supreme Court, that says anyone born on U.S soil is automatically a citizen.

However, the 14 Amendment isn't the only mechanism under which someone born in America to parents who are not both U.S. citizens may be considered a U.S. citizen from birth. Although Barron Trump's mother Melania may not have been a U.S. citizen at the time of his birth, his father Donald certainly was. And according to current U.S. Citizenship and Naturalization laws, a child born outside the U.S. "acquires citizenship at birth if at the time of birth one parent is a foreign national and the other parent is a U.S. citizen," and "the U.S. citizen parent was physically present in the United States for at least 5 years, including at least 2 years after 14 years of age." Barron's mother was a foreign national, and his father was a U.S. citizen who had lived in the United States for more than five years, so Barron would have become a U.S. citizen at birth even if he had not been born in the United States.

Regardless of his mother's immigration status (or the existence of the 14th amendment), Barron Trump is, and always has been, a U.S. citizen. This same argument applies to Donald Trump's other children, Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka, who were also born before Ivana Trump, Donald Trump's first wife, became an American citizen.