There are moments in politics that stop you cold. This was one of them
US President Donald Trump recently reposted a podcast by right-wing radio host Michael Savage on his Truth Social platform, in which Savage described India, China, and other nations as “hell-holes, according to NDTV.” He called Indian and Chinese immigrants “gangsters with laptops” who have “robbed America blind” and “stepped on its flag.” Trump shared both the transcript and video without a word of distance or disagreement.
The rant was rooted in America’s ongoing birthright citizenship debate; the question of whether children born on US soil to non-citizen parents automatically become American citizens. Savage argued they should not, claiming that pregnant women fly to the US in their final months specifically to secure citizenship for their babies, and then bring entire families over. He insisted the 14th Amendment, which guarantees birthright citizenship, was written for a different era, long before airplanes, the internet, or modern migration patterns existed.
Trump has been fighting this battle for years. Within days of beginning his second term in January 2025, he signed an executive order attempting to end automatic birthright citizenship in certain cases. Courts pushed back almost immediately. The matter has now reached the US Supreme Court, which heard arguments earlier this month in the Trump vs. Barbara case.
A day before reposting Savage’s podcast, Trump told CNBC that no other country in the world offers birthright citizenship. That claim was false. Around three dozen nations including Canada, Mexico, and most of South America guarantee citizenship by birth.
Trump responded to the expected court ruling with characteristic drama. “If they rule against our Country,” he posted, “it will cost America its DIGNITY!”
What is already costing America something, many would argue, is the tone from its highest office, one that increasingly borrows its language not from law or leadership, but from rage.
