Donald Trump Keeps Making This Dangerous Threat — And Experts Say It’s Becoming More Credible

Donald Trump has turned the idea of taking away citizenship into a kind of threat he uses against people he doesn’t like. Recently, he has suggested stripping citizenship from critics or opponents, even though the law makes it nearly impossible in most cases.

One of the most alarming examples was when Trump posted that he was thinking about taking away Rosie O’Donnell’s citizenship, calling her “not a Great American.” He has made similar comments about Elon Musk and New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, both of whom are naturalized U.S. citizens. The White House even reposted his message about O’Donnell, signaling that this isn’t just an offhand joke but part of his broader approach.

In the past, denaturalization — the legal process of revoking citizenship — was rare and usually limited to extreme cases, like people who lied about being Nazis or were accused of being Soviet spies. But Trump’s Justice Department pushed to expand it. A memo from June 11 ordered lawyers to pursue denaturalization “as much as possible” in many different categories, including vague ones like “cases the Civil Division determines to be important.” This opens the door to targeting people not for crimes, but for being political enemies.

Legal experts say this is a dangerous change. Cassandra Burke Robertson, a law professor, explained that denaturalization is being shifted from a legal safeguard into a weapon to intimidate critics. Mae Ngai, a historian of citizenship, called Trump’s use of this tactic “unprecedented, alarming and probably unconstitutional.” Even if most of these threats won’t succeed legally, the goal may be fear itself: to send the message, “If you challenge me, I could take away your citizenship.”

It’s important to understand the limits. For people born in the U.S., like Rosie O’Donnell, their citizenship cannot be revoked. The Supreme Court has ruled that birthright citizenship is permanent, even in cases as extreme as a soldier deserting during World War II. Naturalized citizens, however, can have their citizenship challenged — but only under very narrow conditions, like if they lied during the naturalization process.

Still, naturalized citizens are in a more vulnerable position. If the government sues to denaturalize someone, it happens through a civil case, which gives the defendant fewer rights than in a criminal trial. They don’t get a free lawyer, they don’t have a right to a jury, and the government’s burden of proof is lower. Wealthy people like Musk can fight such cases, but ordinary immigrants might not be able to afford it. This is why experts warn that the threat matters even if the number of denaturalization cases remains relatively small.

From 1990 to 2017, only about 11 cases per year were opened on average. Under Trump, that number rose to around 25 per year. While still rare, these cases can devastate lives, especially when brought over small technicalities, like mistakes in paperwork. For immigrant communities, even the possibility of being targeted can create fear and silence political participation.

The bigger danger is psychological and political. When a president openly threatens to take away citizenship from critics, it sends a message that belonging in America is conditional on loyalty to him, not on the law. Citizenship is supposed to guarantee equal rights and security, but Trump’s rhetoric undermines that foundation. For the 25 million naturalized citizens in the U.S., the idea that their status could be questioned at any time creates uncertainty and discourages them from speaking out.

Experts warn that this isn’t just about individual cases but about reshaping what it means to be an American. It pushes the country toward an authoritarian model, where rights depend on political loyalty instead of the rule of law. That chilling effect is the real power of Trump’s threats, even if most never become reality.