Donald Trump has been accused of trying to intimidate the U.S. Supreme Court by attending a high stakes hearing in which he hopes to put an end to birthright citizenship in America.
The president took the unprecedented step of attending oral arguments on Wednesday, effectively staring down the court’s nine justices as they quizzed his lawyers on one of the most consequential constitutional questions they face this year: whether all children born in the United States can continue to automatically receive citizenship.
Birthright citizenship is legally enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which automatically grants citizenship to individuals born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents’ citizenship or immigration status.
However, Trump is attempting to overhaul the law—and play to his base—by arguing that not everyone born in America automatically qualifies as a citizen.
“This is not about Chinese billionaires who are billionaires from other countries who all of a sudden have 75 children or 59 children in one case, or 10 children, becoming American citizens,” Trump said in a wild rant on Wednesday night as he declared he was going to attend the hearing.
“This was about slaves.”
Trump arrived at the court with Attorney General Pam Bondi shortly before the hearing began at 10am. Outside, protesters demonstrated peacefully with signs and umbrellas marked with phrases such as “Due Process” and “Born in the U.S.A. = true American.”
“I’m surprised he was coming, but at the same time he’s such a bully so in a sense I’m not surprised at all,” Roslyne Shiao, who was at the court protesting with her family, told The Daily Beast.
Trump’s attendance adds a layer of political theater to proceedings that were already drawing intense public interest. Some people lined up overnight secure a seat; others joined the Supreme Court’s lottery system in the hope of getting one.
But the move has sparked concerns that the president is trying to influence the nine justices of the court, which includes three of his own appointees: Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh.
“Intimidation of the judiciary!” noted one observer on X.
“Ignoring the blatant intimidation tactics, is it too much to hope that he starts making comments and has to be forcibly removed?” asked another.
However, Trump officials have pushed back on any criticism. In response to CBS reporter Kathryn Watson, who noted that presidents have generally avoided attending Supreme Court hearings, partly to avoid the separation of powers, Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon claimed on X: “There’s literally a chair set up at SCOTUS for our presidents to sit in for oral argument.
“Your separation of powers nonsense is more imitation pearl-clutching hauteur,” said the MAGA acolyte.
The hearing at the Supreme Court of the United States comes as immigration policy takes center stage ahead of November’s midterms.
The case stems from Trump’s 2025 executive order directing federal agencies to deny citizenship to children born in the United States unless at least one parent is a citizen or lawful permanent resident.
The policy directly challenges the long-standing interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, which has been understood for more than a century to grant citizenship to nearly all people born on U.S. soil.
A ruling in Trump’s favor, while highly unlikely according to legal scholars, could fundamentally redefine the meaning of citizenship in the United States, potentially creating a class of U.S.-born individuals without legal status and reshaping constitutional law for generations.
It could also affect as many as 250,000 children born each year.
Behind the legal push is John Eastman, a conservative attorney who has long promoted a fringe theory that the Constitution does not guarantee citizenship to children of noncitizens.
Eastman, who was disbarred over his role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election, has urged Trump since his first term to pursue ending birthright citizenship. Despite this, his role has not been prominently acknowledged in official filings.
The case also underscores a broader tension within Trump’s immigration agenda.
While seeking to restrict automatic citizenship, Trump has simultaneously promoted a so-called “gold card” visa concept that would allow wealthy foreigners to effectively buy a pathway into the United States — a contrast critics argue undercuts the administration’s legal and moral arguments against birthright citizenship.
But Trump has long been determined to upend the law.
“We are the only Country in the World that dignifies this subject with even discussion. Look at the dates of this long ago legislation - THE EXACT END OF THE CIVIL WAR!” he wrote on X this month.
“The World is getting rich selling citizenships to our Country, while at the same time laughing at how STUPID our U.S. Court System has become (TARIFFS!). “Dumb Judges and Justices will not a great Country make!”
