Liberal commentator Joy Reid just ignited a political firestorm by dragging First Lady Melania Trump into the crosshairs of Donald Trump’s controversial immigration policies.
According to the Daily Mail, Reid floated the idea on her show Monday while interviewing Rep. Pramila Jayapal, arguing that Trump’s denaturalization push is “monarch-style” revenge politics aimed at immigrants he dislikes.
Her comments followed a June Justice Department memo ordering agents to “prioritize denaturalization” of anyone deemed a national-security threat and mirrored Trump’s repeated boasts about stripping citizenship from immigrants who, he alleges, gamed the system. Critics say that approach mixes fraud with ideological opposition.
Trump’s allies say the directive merely restores integrity to a naturalization process plagued by fraud. The president, in several rallies this summer, has vowed to “root out criminals who lied to get the privilege of the American passport,” framing it as law-and-order policy.
Reid countered that history shows how such power can expand. “If a future Democratic president decides they don’t like Melania Trump, she’s gone,” she told Jayapal, warning that political vendettas, not public safety, could become the litmus test.
She extended the hypothetical to Trump’s adult children, whose mother Ivana was Czech, and to billionaire Elon Musk and New York City politician Zohran Mamdani—names the president has jokingly floated for deportation—calling the rhetoric “chilling” in a democracy.
Melania Trump arrived in the United States in 1996 on modeling visas, secured an EB-1 “Einstein” green card in 2001 and took the oath of citizenship five years later. She is the only first lady to become American through naturalization.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, recently mocked that elite visa on Capitol Hill, noting EB-1 recipients are often Nobel laureates or Olympic champions. “The math ain’t mathin’ here,” she quipped, reviving liberal accusations that the first lady benefited from favoritism.
Conservative commentators pounced on Reid’s remarks. “Our first lady isn’t going anywhere,” one user posted on X, while another dismissed the discussion as “fantasy political fan-fiction,” underscoring the partisan intensity surrounding any mention of Melania’s immigration record.
Reid also spotlighted Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose grandfather was deported to Cuba before Rubio’s Florida birth in 1971. She suggested that under Trump’s logic even cabinet officials with immigrant roots could face retroactive scrutiny and family histories.
Jayapal echoed that concern, noting that Congress has historically limited denaturalization to proven fraud or war crimes. Deploying it as a partisan weapon, she argued, would erode the permanence promised to millions who pledged allegiance to the United States.
Trump defenders counter that the Justice Department memo simply resurrects a 2020 pilot program suspended under President Joe Biden and targets only “criminal naturalized citizens.” One supporter wrote that Reid “doesn’t grasp the difference between lawful immigrants and lawbreakers.”
At its core, the clash pits Joy Reid, a media provocateur seeking to spotlight perceived hypocrisy, against President Trump, who has made aggressive immigration enforcement the signature of his second term. Their latest skirmish unfolded on national television and instantly metastasized online.
The stakes extend far beyond a cable-news soundbite. Millions of naturalized citizens reside in the United States, and advocacy groups fear the administration’s language could blur lines between revoking fraudulent papers and punishing political dissent. Activists warn a legal “ice age” for immigrants could follow.
Whether Congress intervenes or courts are asked to curb executive power, the fight over denaturalization seems destined to shadow the 2026 midterms. For now, Reid and her critics agree on only one thing: the future of America’s newest citizens is suddenly up for debate.