Fact check: Trump, repeating old lies on ‘Meet the Press,’ falsely claims US is the only country with birthright citizenship

President-elect Donald Trump repeated numerous false claims during an interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” – including his old lie that the US is the world’s only country with birthright citizenship.

Trump reiterated his intention to try to end birthright citizenship, in which, under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, someone born in the US is granted automatic citizenship even if their parents are not citizens. And he asserted, “We’re the only country that has it.”

This is not true; CNN and various other outlets previously debunked the claim when Trump made it during his presidential campaign in 2015 and during his first presidency in 2018. About three dozen countries provide automatic citizenship to people born on their soil, including US neighbors Canada and Mexico and the majority of South American countries.