Trump: Cruz's Canadian birth could be a 'big problem'

Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.
(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

It feels a bit like déjà vu: Instead of challenging President Obama on his birthplace, Donald Trump is now questioning whether Canadian-born Ted Cruz can be president.

During an interview with The Washington Post, Trump said if his fellow Republican presidential candidate becomes the nominee, he could find himself "tied up in court" for years. "That'd be a big problem," he said. "It'd be a very precarious one for Republicans because he'd be running and the courts may take a long time to decide. You don't want to be running and have that kind of thing over your head." Cruz was born in Calgary in 1970, and his mother was a U.S. citizen; under the U.S. Constitution, the president must be a "natural-born citizen," and anyone born to a U.S. citizen is granted citizenship regardless of where the birth occurs.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.