'Something has to kick off': Trump said to be hitting 'major hurdles' to keeping promise
Donald Trump made a key campaign promise that's going to be difficult to keep, according to a report.
Trump has said multiple times he hopes to end the birthright citizenship feature of the U.S., which many say is supported by the Constitution. The rule allows children born in this country to be citizens, even if their parents aren't.
Most recently, Trump said in a NBC interview that he hoped to get rid of birthright citizenship via an executive order.
ALSO READ: Why ABC settled a case they knew they would win — and why the Lincoln Project didn't
But his team privately recognizes that it won't be that easy, according to a CNN report.
"In private, his allies have been crafting strategies to do that, including directing the State Department to not issue passports to children with undocumented parents and tighten requirements for tourist visas to crack down on 'birth tourism,' according to two sources familiar with the planning," the outlet reported. "Multiple options are being kicked among Trump allies to tighten the interpretation, keenly aware that any action would likely get legally challenged and eventually land before the Supreme Court."
“Something has to kick off the legal battle,” one of the sources told CNN, the report states.
CNN quotes another source as saying, "This isn’t a barn-burning emergency. This doesn’t have to be done and completed and set in stone in year one. They know they’re going to the Supreme Court with it, and they’ll methodically make their case."
"A legal fight would be inevitable, but getting the Supreme Court to take up such a challenge is not a guarantee, and the high court will be less inclined to do so if there is no disagreement among the circuits about the meaning of birthright citizenship," according to the outlet.
The CNN report also notes that, "Longstanding Supreme Court precedents are also a major hurdle for the incoming Trump administration."