Theo Wold, who drafted the original version of President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship order, said he expects the administration and its allies to keep pressing the issue after the Supreme Court struck down the policy.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The former Trump administration official who drafted the original version of President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship order said Tuesday he does not believe the Supreme Court’s ruling against the policy will end the broader fight over how American citizenship is defined.
The Supreme Court last week struck down Trump’s 2025 executive order, which sought to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants.
Theo Wold, a former assistant attorney general and White House deputy assistant for domestic policy under Trump, said on the John Solomon Reports podcast that he does not expect Trump or other immigration policy figures to accept the ruling as the final word.
Wold said he doubts Trump will stop pursuing the issue, and he said he does not think “other folks who have used enormous brain power on these issues will either.”
Among those Wold cited was Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and one of Trump’s leading immigration policy architects since the president’s first term.
Trump criticized the court’s 6-3 decision in Trump v. Barbara in a Truth Social post, calling it “too bad for our Country” and urging Congress to pass legislation addressing the issue.
Wold described the ruling as a “massive defeat.” He said questions asked during arguments by Trump-appointed Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh suggested skepticism toward the arguments advanced by Trump’s lawyers.
“For well over 60 years, we basically allowed judicial activists in robes, legal academics and the like, to define what American citizenship is, or should be, and the obligations that citizenship imposes on people,” Wold said. “You mean a person who just gets on a plane to visit Disney World, and then they give birth, that kid is the same as me? That doesn’t seem to make sense.”
Wold said he expects the “next stage of this battle” to emerge in U.S. insular territories, including Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
He pointed to early 20th-century cases involving whether people born in places such as American Samoa or the Northern Mariana Islands are American citizens.
“Right now, they have this de facto status that’s basically like you’re an American by nationality, but you’re not an American citizen, and so I think the territories are not governed by the same full import of the 14th Amendment,” Wold said.
Wold said he views illegal immigration as a threat to the U.S. economy, national security and citizens’ access to housing, health care and education. He also argued that the legal immigration system requires major changes.
He called the current system “incredibly byzantine” and “totally wacky,” pointing specifically to the 11 million visas issued each year.
Wold said any of those visas can allow a foreign worker or foreign national to enter the United States and give birth to a child who would receive American citizenship under current rules.
He said the Trump administration will need to keep pressing for action, but added that he “wouldn’t count Congress out.” Wold said it is encouraging that some lawmakers who are not typically identified primarily with immigration policy are now showing interest in the issue.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he is “looking at all angles” to legislatively address the issue.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who is leaving Congress, has also called for congressional action.
The ruling leaves Trump’s executive order blocked, but Wold’s comments suggest the administration and its allies may shift the fight toward Congress, the territories and future legal challenges over the meaning and reach of the 14th Amendment.
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