A GOP senator has put forward a bill that would force dual citizens to renounce their foreign citizenship and submit “exclusive allegiance” to the United States — legislation that would strip the first lady Melania Trump, and son Barron of their Slovenian passports.
Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno shared his radical plan Monday, titled “Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025,” which would force anyone with dual citizenship to choose between the two countries.
“An individual may not be a citizen or national of the United States while simultaneously possessing any foreign citizenship,” Moreno’s bill read. “A citizen of the United States who, after the date of the enactment of this Act, voluntarily acquires foreign citizenship shall be deemed to have relinquished United States citizenship.”
Moreno was born in Colombia and became a U.S. citizen at the age of 18.
“It was an honor to pledge an Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America and only to the United States of America,” Moreno said in a news release. “Being an American citizen is an honor and a privilege — and if you want to be an American — it’s all or nothing. It’s time to end dual citizenship for good.”
Moreno’s plan will likely hit a snag — under the Fourteenth Amendment, a U.S. citizen “cannot lose his or her citizenship unless he or she willingly surrenders it.”
Melania moved to the U.S. in 1996 and is the only first lady to become a naturalized citizen. She obtained citizenship in 2006 and remains a dual citizen of the U.S. and Slovenia, along with her 19-year-old son, Barron, according to Mary Jordan’s 2020 book, The Art of Her Deal, about the former model.
It was essential to the first lady that Barron spoke Slovenian and that he held a Slovenian passport, in addition to an American one, Jordan wrote.
“[Donald] Trump has complained to others that he has no idea what they are saying,” one passage of the book reads.
In an interview last year, Jordan said that dual citizenship allowed Barron to “work freely in all of Europe much more easily.”
“So if he wants to go start a Paris bureau of Trump.org or a Slovenian bureau, it’s much easier for him, and it just gives him more options,” the author said.
Under Moreno’s bill, which would be enforced by the Department of Homeland Security and State Department, dual citizens would be flagged by the system and be given one year to renounce their foreign citizenship or give up their American citizenship.
Anyone who does not comply after a year would automatically lose their U.S. citizenship and be recorded as a non-citizen.
The Trump administration has made unprecedented attempts this year to end birthright citizenship, which is being challenged in the courts.
