A new Republican effort to tackle “divided loyalties” has hit close to home for Donald Trump. It has put First Lady Melania Trump and their youngest son, Barron, at the center of a right-wing campaign against dual citizenship.
Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio, a strong Trump supporter and naturalized American, is working on legislation that would effectively end dual citizenship in the United States. His proposal would force millions of Americans with two passports to give up their foreign nationality if they want to keep their U.S. citizenship.
Melania and Barron both have U.S. and Slovenian citizenship. The First Lady was born in Slovenia and became a U.S. citizen in 2006, but she kept her original nationality. She also completed the process to secure dual citizenship for Barron, giving him the same status.
Moreno is presenting his bill as a test of patriotic loyalty. “Being an American citizen is an honor and a privilege, and if you want to be an American, it’s all or nothing,” he recently stated. He argues that Americans should only be loyal to one country, viewing dual citizenship as a risk to national unity.
His proposal would allow federal agencies to find dual nationals and give them one year to renounce their second citizenship. Those who do not comply could automatically lose their U.S. citizenship and be seen as foreign nationals under immigration law.
Senator Bernie Moreno has introduced a bill to ban Americans from holding dual-citizenship called the Exclusive Citizenship Act.
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This means Melania and Barron might have to choose between keeping their U.S. passports or holding on to their Slovenian citizenship. It creates an awkward situation for a political family that often uses nationalist rhetoric while quietly maintaining global connections.
However, Moreno’s efforts will likely fail in court because Supreme Court rulings have consistently affirmed that Americans cannot be stripped of their citizenship without their consent. For decades, the Court has recognized the right to hold dual nationality, making any attempt to ban it a legal dead end.
The White House and the Office of the First Lady did not respond to requests for comment on the legislation or whether Melania and Barron would support a law that directly affects their own citizenship status.
Moreno’s proposal comes at a time of intense Republican pressure to strengthen immigration policies after the Thanksgiving Eve shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom was killed, and Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe was injured. The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is an Afghan national who entered the U.S. during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and once worked in a CIA-supported unit targeting Taliban commanders.
The shooting has inspired demands for tougher rules, with Trump urging an even wider clampdown. Moreno, eager to cast himself as one of the Senate’s hardest line voices on immigration, is clearly trying to ride the wave.
But even if his bill has almost no chance of becoming law, the situation has created a strange twist. A proposal meant to target nameless dual citizens has ended up pulling the First Lady and her teenage son into a national argument over what it really means to be American.
