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Donald Trump attacked Nikki Haley for being the child of Indian immigrants.
Jan. 10 2024, Published 11:30 a.m. ET
Donald Trump recently returned to his “birther” ways and attacked Nikki Haley for being the child of immigrant parents, RadarOnline.com has learned.
In a surprising development to come after he utilized similar rhetoric against Barack Obama ahead of the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, Trump attacked Haley on Tuesday for being Indian.
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The embattled ex-president also suggested that the former South Carolina governor was ineligible to run for president because she is the daughter of Indian immigrants.
“In [Nikki Haley’s] situation, reports indicate that her parents were not U.S. citizens at the time of her birth in 1972,” read a post shared by Trump on Truth Social.
“Based on the Constitution as interpreted by [Paul Ingrassia], this disqualifies Haley from presidential or vice-presidential candidacy under the 12th Amendment,” the post continued.
The 45th president faced immediate backlash for sharing the post, and several lawyers were quick to note that Trump’s claims against Haley were “totally baseless.”
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Trump also argued that Haley was ineligible to run for president because her parents were born in India.
“The birther claims against Nikki Haley are totally baseless as a legal and constitutional matter,” Laurence Tribe, who serves as professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, told NBC News.
“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,” the law professor continued, “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.”
The Associated Press also fact-checked Trump’s birther claims against Haley and found that – contrary to the ex-president’s post – the former ambassador to the UN is a “natural-born U.S. citizen who is eligible to serve as president.”
“Haley is a natural-born U.S. citizen who is eligible to serve as president,” the outlet wrote. “The former ambassador to the United Nations was born on Jan. 20, 1972, in Bamberg, South Carolina.”
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Nikki Haley was born in South Carolina in 1972.
“Experts agree Haley is a legitimate candidate as defined by the Constitution, regardless of her parents’ citizenship status,” the outlet added. “Her birth in Bamberg makes her a natural-born citizen, one of three qualifications to hold the U.S. presidency.”
Meanwhile, Haley herself responded to Trump’s startling birther claims and suggested that the embattled ex-president was “afraid” of her as she continues to rise in the polls for the 2024 GOP primary.
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“Who's afraid of Nikki Haley?” read a Wall Street Journal post that Haley shared online. “Answer: Donald Trump.”
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Trump essentially kickstarted the birther movement in 2008 when he falsely claimed that Obama was not born in the United States.
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Trump utilized the same birther rhetoric against Barack Obama during the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections.
Trump regularly repeated the false claim that Obama was born in Kenya – not Hawaii – to get the then-presidential candidate booted from the general ballot 16 years ago.
While Haley’s parents are Indian immigrants, they moved to Canada and then South Carolina in 1969. Haley herself was born in South Carolina in 1972.
