A Republican senator proposed a bill Monday that would require Americans who hold dual citizenship to renounce their foreign citizenship, legislation that could affect first lady Melania Trump and her son, Barron.
“One of the greatest honors of my life was when I became an American citizen at 18, the first opportunity I could do so,” Colombian-born Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) said in a press release. “It was an honor to pledge an Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America and ONLY to the United States of America! 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 introduced the Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025, which he said in a statement would “establish that citizens of the United States must have sole and exclusive allegiance to the United States.” He claimed current U.S laws regarding dual citizenship “create conflicts of interest.”
If passed, the bill would give Americans with dual citizenship a year to either submit a renunciation of their foreign citizenship to the State Department or submit a renunciation of their U.S citizenship to Homeland Security.
Moreno’s bill would receive pushback. Under the 14th Amendment, which held in a 1967 case, “a U.S. citizen cannot lose his or her citizenship unless he or she willingly surrenders it.”
