Nikki Haley must be doing better in New Hampshire than I’d thought if Trump is coming after her with this sort of attack. While he was busy fending off efforts to remove him from the ballot, he went on Truth Social and posted a claim from someone else that Haley should be tossed off the ballot instead. The dubious claim (to say the least) is that Haley is ineligible to be the president because she was born to non-citizen migrants. The underlying statement is true, of course. Haley’s parents didn’t gain citizenship until after she was born. Yet under our current laws, that fact is irrelevant to her ability to assume the office of the presidency. But she’s currently doing a lot better in the polls in New Hampshire than she was previously (she’s climbed to 32 while Trump has sagged to 39), so perhaps Trump is just getting a little nervous. (NBC News)

Donald Trump, the chief propagator of false “birther” claims first against then-President Barack Obama and later against Sen. Ted Cruz, has a new target: Nikki Haley.

As Haley surges in New Hampshire polling, Trump posted an article on his Truth Social account from a right-wing outlet that claimed Haley, his GOP rival, is ineligible to be president because her parents were not U.S. citizens when she was born.

Haley was born in South Carolina and has lived in the U.S. her entire life. Her parents were immigrants, who became citizens after her birth in 1972.

If someone really wanted to raise this as an issue, the best they could do is accuse Haley of being an “anchor baby.” But even that’s not really accurate. There has been plenty of discussion about doing away with birthright citizenship for children born to illegal aliens who entered the country without permission. It’s an idea that I personally support. But Haley’s parents emigrated to the United States legally and went on to be sworn in as citizens. They followed the rules, which is what conservatives supposedly support while opposing illegal migration.

Nikki Haley has lived in the United States for her entire life. She’s also over 35 years of age and to my knowledge has never been convicted of treason or insurrection. In other words, she meets the scant requirements we have for someone to run for president. If she didn’t, I’m fairly sure that someone would have pointed that out long before now.

If nothing else, this rather silly dustup reminds us once again of the ongoing Biden border crisis that has allowed more than eight million people to enter America illegally and remain here. How many of them have already had children, resulting in actual anchor babies of their own? It’s been a few years now, so there has been plenty of time for that to happen. And they probably received 100% free healthcare for maternity visits and delivery, while citizens still have to foot the bill for their own care.

This really should be a campaign topic that the GOP candidates hammer home. But for some reason, you rarely hear it being brought up, even on Fox. Eight million can turn into twelve million pretty quickly under the right circumstances, even if the borders were somehow finally closed. We already have citizens who are homeless, struggling with mental health issues, and unable to find enough to eat. Where will the resources come from to care for all of these anchor babies? Not to sound too cold-hearted, but this isn’t our problem and we shouldn’t be footing the bill for it. The borders need to be sealed and I would like to hear the GOP candidates for both the White House and Congress articulating a plan whereby we don’t allow any new immigrants into the country except under extraordinary emergency conditions until the massive army of them who have already arrived are rounded up and deported. If any of them have already had anchor babies, they can either take them with them or put them into the foster care system.