As the 2024 election nears, the attacks between the GOP candidates -- at least those left -- are ramping up.
According to the Daily Mail, former President Donald Trump made headlines this week after claiming that former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley might not be eligible to run for the presidency.
Trump shared an article on his Truth Social account that laid out why she might not be eligible, which is based on her parents being Indian immigrants.
The original article shared by the former president was published on American Greatness. The Gateway Pundit reported on it later, which is what Trump shared.
The original piece quoted Paul Ingrassia, a law clerk who graduated from law school in 2022.
At the core of his argument is Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, which Ingrassia insists unambiguously mandates that only “natural born citizens” of the United States are eligible to assume the presidency.
He went on to explain the distinction between a "natural born citizen" and "birthright citizenship."
The distinction between “natural born citizen” and “birthright citizenship” is central to Ingrassia’s analysis. The former term, he reminds us, is expressly reserved for those born on American soil to U.S. citizen parents, a requirement not emulated for other federal offices. This stringent criterion traces back to the Founding Fathers’ fears of foreign influence at the highest level of government.
Trump's sharing of the report sparked immediate backlash from legal scholars and Haley herself.
Trump floats the (absurd) claim that Nikki Haley is ineligible to run for Presidenthttps://t.co/YJlMbUVlft pic.twitter.com/dKntnvNdjG
— John Hasson (@SonofHas) January 9, 2024
"Who's afraid of Nikki Haley? Answer: Donald Trump," Haley wrote in an X post.
She's currently the only GOP candidate with a remote chance of competing against Trump in several early-voting states, such as New Hampshire, where she only trails him by seven point.
Trump's "birther" implication sparked intense feedback from other legal scholars who believe there's nothing to it. Laurence Tribe, Harvard Law School professor emeritus, explained to NBC News that it's a nothing-burger in his opinion.
"The birther claims against Nikki Haley are totally baseless as a legal and constitutional matter," Tribe said.
Not surprisingly, he suggested there is a racial motive behind Trump's post.
"I can't imagine what Trump hopes to gain by those claims unless it's to play the race card against the former governor and UN ambassador as a woman of color — and to draw on the wellsprings of anti-immigrant prejudice by reminding everyone that Haley's parents weren't citizens when she was born in the USA." Tribe added.
