Here’s one bad thing that the Trump presidency should end: the U.S. constitution’s requirement that only a natural born citizen can be president of the United States.
Trump’s example demolishes all the arguments for the clause.
Chief among these is the clause’s supposed preventive power. The clause is supposed to be a guarantee against efforts by foreign powers to seize power in the country by electing a president. It’s supposed to give us presidents whose loyalty to the country can’t be honestly questioned. But the intervention of Russia to help Trump – and the president’s still mysterious fealty to Russia and his secret personal finances – shows that the clause doesn’t provide any protection. A natural born president can be controlled by foreign powers just as well as an immigrant.
Furthermore, Trump’s obvious lack of qualifications for the office he holds suggests that the pool of presidential contenders isn’t big enough. More of our politicians were made by others – by wealth or family. Which means politicians are a less diverse group than leadership in other American walks of life, where immigrants are often a significant percentage of top folks. If Trump and Hillary Clinton were the best that a native-born America can produce, why not open the presidency to immigrant candidates?
Trump’s hostility to immigrants also makes the anti-immigrant discrimination embedded in the natural-born-citizen clause even less acceptable. Any American, regardless of birth, should be able to aspire to be anything they want, even president. Trump makes clear that, more than ever, immigrants need more representation in the highest offices in the land.