Stephen Colbert slaps a name on Trump's spooky ploy to sidestep the Constitution's birthright citizenship

Stephen Colbert on Trump and birthright citizenship
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/The Late Show)

The midterms are just a week away, "and this year, the campaigns have been dominated by fear and just really terrible, heartbreaking events," Stephen Colbert said on Tuesday's Late Show. "That's why for Halloween, instead of decorating my house with witches and goblins, I just hung up newspapers."

"Now, our fearmonger-in-chief, the Great Pumpkin," he said, "he knows how to stoke the fear, he knows how to appeal to the Latino-phobic, his Hispanickers, if you will. So this morning, Trump revealed that he was planning an executive order to end birthright citizenship." The idea that people born in the U.S. are American is enshrined in the 14th Amendment, "and it's been reaffirmed multiple times by the Supreme Court over the last 150 years," Colbert said. "But Trump says that his executive order has more legal authority than the 14th Amendment. What do you call a man, a leader of a country, who thinks that what he dictates is more important than the Constitution?" He eventually came up with the d-word he was looking for.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.