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LBC's Simon Marks updates Lewis Goodall on Donald Trump's failed attempt to rewrite the US constitution in ending birthright citizenship. The majority of Supreme Court justices ruled against Trump in another blow to the president. The 6-3 ruling marked the second time this year that the court has invalidated a major Trump initiative, following its February decision to strike down his sweeping global tariffs. Simon Marks says the president has suffered 'reverse after reverse' recently, adding that ahead of the November mid-term elections, this is not a good look... Yet, he's already looking at another route to pull back on birthright citizenship, one that may involve stopping pregnant women from flying to the US. Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp #simonmarks #lewisgoodall #trump #uspolitics #supremecourt #LBC LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup
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0:00
We're in Supreme Court season where they give all of their judgments
0:03
This is a period where they've got a lot of really important cases
0:07
And they gave an important one yesterday, didn't they, Simon, on the 14th Amendment? Yeah, very important one on this issue of so-called birthright citizenship
0:14
So America offers birthright citizenship, which means anybody, virtually any child born on US soil
0:22
with very singular carve-outs if you're an accredited diplomat to the United States
0:26
and you and your wife have a baby, you can't, or your wife is a diplomat
0:29
and has a baby, that child is not eligible for citizenship. But everybody else, regardless of parentage
0:38
if they're born on American soil, they are automatically eligible for a US passport
0:44
and a US birth certificate. Which is unusual, but enshrined in the Constitution
0:48
in the 14th Amendment. And the provenance of it, just for people who aren't familiar with it
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basically comes from the Civil War, because after the Civil War, the victors of the Civil War
0:58
the union side wanted to make sure that basically slaves who had been born in the united states who
1:02
had been denied their citizenship got constitutional right to citizenship which was unarguable and
1:07
beyond contested correct exactly that and the trump administration came into office in its second
1:12
term and said we're going to challenge the legality of birthright citizenship they argue that there is
1:17
birthright citizenship tourism taking place that people are flying to the united states deliberately
1:23
to have babies there and of course they argue that there are numerous new American citizens
1:28
being born to parents who are illegal immigrants in the United States, not present on American soil
1:36
legally and therefore they wanted this whole notion of birthright citizenship overthrown
1:41
This was always going to be a monumental overreach by the President and in I think arguably the most
1:49
predictable decision that the Supreme Court promulgated yesterday by a vote of
1:54
6-3. They rejected Donald Trump's claims. I mean, just to give people
1:59
the wording, I mean, I'm amazed it's amazing that three of them actually voted
2:04
in favour of returning it, right? That actually is part of the story. But the
2:08
section one of the 14th Amendment literally says all persons born or naturalised
2:12
in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States. Yeah, in black and white
2:17
On paper, the written new constitution of the United States, but yet they decided to challenge it, which I think raises a huge question
2:25
We're four months away from America's midterm elections. Donald Trump has already suffered reverse after reverse after reverse
2:33
The same Supreme Court eviscerated his tariffs that lay at the heart, not just of his trade policy, but of his national security policy as well
2:41
because he was using those in a punitive way to attack enemies
2:46
where previous governments would have reached for economic sanctions. He's obviously suffered this huge reversal
2:51
as a result of a strategy-free, plan-free war on Iran that has done untold damage to the economy
2:59
And in November, as with every election, it will be the economy, stupid
3:04
that drives the decisions that voters are making. So the notion that you would have run the risk
3:09
of being on the receiving end of this kind of a Supreme Court defeat four months before an election and then you would double down on it Stephen Miller the Deputy White House Chief of Staff
3:23
in many ways Donald Trump's sort of Rasputin, his ideologue, going on Fox News last night and saying
3:29
they're going to look for ways of circumventing this Supreme Court decision
3:34
even though the Supreme Court is basically saying, no, what it says in black and white
3:38
in the Constitution, in the amendment there, is absolutely clear what this is all about
3:44
And three of the Supreme Court justices were appointed by Donald Trump himself
3:48
He's appointed a third of the court. Correct. So in many ways it is his court. So absolutely clear where the court stands on this issue
3:54
But Miller last night was suggesting that they are going to ban pregnant women
3:59
from flying to the United States in an order to prevent what they claim
4:05
is birthright citizenship tourism. I mean, in terms of the numbers, this decision..
4:09
Do you pregnant protests at the airport? I mean, I just don't... Begin to know how... First of all, that, of course, will be legally challenged
4:15
I mean, can you discriminate against people like that legally? I mean, who knows
4:20
And, I mean, the other point to make about this is that the decision means
4:24
that 235,000 newborns a year that might have been denied American citizenship
4:30
will continue to get it, and those that have received it can be safe in the knowledge just in the last two days
4:35
that, you know, if you've been born in the last two days, you're definitely legitimately an American citizen
4:39
But they are not going to let this issue go. And, I mean, it seems pretty clear that any legal efforts to get round this are dead on arrival
4:49
but they are determined to try and crack down on it. But it's also true that even though this case received most attention
4:57
that perhaps it won't be, not least because for many legal scholars it was so obvious what was going to happen
5:02
It might not be or won't be the most significant judgment the Supreme Court has come to in the last few days
5:07
Well, I think that's right. I mean, there was a decision that came out on Tuesday, also by a vote of 6-3, and the justices struck down a federal law that limits the amount of money political parties can spend in coordination with a candidate for office
5:24
In other words, there are now no limits whatsoever on how much money you can spend if you're running for election in the United States
5:34
And to put this into context, there was just a brutal Republican primary in Texas between the incumbent Senator John Cornyn and a Trump mini-me by the name of Ken Paxton, who, of course, eventually got Trump's endorsement, resulting in Paxton unseating John Cornyn
5:51
He will now be the candidate in that Senate race in November. It broke all records for a single Senate primary
5:59
This is not even the election. This is the primary contest. they spent between them 130 million dollars and now as paxton heads into the election in november
6:11
up against a young upstart democrat by the name of james tallarico darling of really really the
6:17
outcome of the senate can hinge on this race now between them tallarico and paxton are aware as
6:23
our candidates all over the country that the sky is the limit when it comes to any of these races If you look at the New York contests that were underway recently Democratic Party primaries AI companies spending millions to try and make sure that one candidate in New York who was
6:42
pledging to implement regulation of the artificial intelligence industry, a man who used to work
6:48
for Palantir, was defeated. These AI companies with the kind of money they've got at their
6:54
disposal, Elon Musk with the kind of money he's got at his disposal, Mark Zuckerberg
6:58
all the rest, are now able to pollute the American electoral system with even more money
7:06
So this is going to be completely unprecedented in November and on to 2028
7:12
And just for some context, you talk about that Republican primaries, not even the whole primary process in Texas, but the Republican primary contest for one job
7:22
the Senate, $130 million. For some context, in the UK, the legal spending limit for a political party for the whole general election, if you contest every single seat, is £34 million
7:33
Right. Which is about £50,000 per seat. I mean, we are... Make it look like a bring and buy sale, to be honest
7:41
That's the best way. You can't even envisage how much is going to be spent on the 2028 presidential election as a result of this
7:48
And this, of course, comes, this is part of a long-standing process, which actually, to be fair, precedes Trump
7:52
goes all the way back to a judgment called Citizens United in the Obama administration, where the Supreme Court has gradually dismantled
7:59
first with a small conservative majority, but now with a big one, they've just dismantled virtually every bit of campaign finance
8:05
You know, Citizens United basically said that companies in America were people
8:09
They could be treated as people with regards to electoral donations. So no difference whatsoever
8:15
And now it's just, it's anarchy, basically. Yeah, and I think it's worth making the point that one of the reasons why critics of the court will argue that by a 6-3 majority, with the Republican justices obviously making a huge difference, the court voted in favour of striking this law down, is because Donald Trump has a much more significant campaign war chest at his disposal than the Democrats have currently managed to bring in
8:39
It's partly because, you know, he's able to constantly occupy the Klieg lights, grab the oxygen of attention
8:46
The Democrats are struggling to match the amount of money that he's got at his disposal financially
8:52
And now the message to Donald Trump and to Republican backers all over the country is that if you want to stop what is now increasingly a Democratic Party that is seeing Democratic socialists winning primary contests
9:08
Big win for Democratic Socialists last night in Colorado. Flyover country, middle of the country
9:15
Democratic Socialists are laying claim to the future of the Democratic Party
9:19
There's going to be a big fight between them and the centrists over what the party stands for
9:24
Trump's got this now massive war chest already and spent limitless funds
9:30
And of course has now spent, we now know, made over a billion dollars in crypto since he returned to office
9:36
It might just be that cryptocurrencies might be making a few donations over the campaign season
9:40
to come in 2028. One final thing, Simon. What's your thoughts on, and we've seen a few glimmers
9:45
of it so far what your thought on what the Burnham relationship is going to be like I think it unpredictable as ever with Donald Trump We all thought that the Trump relationship with Zoran Mamdani was going to be terrible
9:57
And the bad buds. Suddenly there was a bromance once they actually met. Trump's in love with him
10:01
I mean, we all thought when he arrived at the Oval Office it was going to be a Zelensky-style on-camera drubbing
10:05
and it turned out to be a love-in. However, I think that from the perspective of the United States
10:12
if you listen to Andy Burnham's speech, and if you're Donald Trump, you want him to drill baby drill
10:17
You want him to seal the borders to immigrants. You want a crackdown on crime, by which he means mass deportations
10:24
Well, Trump certainly didn't hear anything in that speech that related to that
10:27
He also didn't hear anything in that speech about the issues that animate the American economy right now
10:34
AI, the big social media companies, there was not a mention by Andy Burnham of artificial intelligence
10:41
Don't think Trump's that big into devolution. Not sure that's an agenda that really..
10:46
I mean, the idea of the number 10 of the north, I'm not sure that that's really going to be lighting them up
10:51
But, you know, it's not his country to run. Similarly, it seems to me, I mean, I've spent a bit of time earlier this year in China
10:57
And if you go to Beijing, now an official national economic priority of President Xi Jinping's government is creating a low altitude economy
11:10
An economy that's going to use drones to deliver goods to people, to transport people
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this low-altitude economy, by 2035, the Chinese are forecasting, is going to be worth, to their GDP, US$500 billion
11:25
No mention of anything regarding any kind of sort of future-proofing of the British economy, which I think, from their perspective in China
11:34
will seem lovely to hear references to Peter Liu, but not a 2027 agenda from the perspective, I think
11:44
of either Washington or Beijing. Is there a world, though, where, I mean, Trump likes a winner. That's one of the reasons he likes Mamdani
11:49
And I suspect the full Burnham story has not been fully conveyed to him
11:53
No, no, definitely not. But at some point it might be. And one sort of thinks you can imagine a situation where Trump would quite like the kind of chutzpah
12:00
the kind of brio of this guy who's kind of come from nowhere and shown some guts and all that stuff
12:04
And I can imagine Burnham, when he wants to be, can be a pretty charming guy. Well, the one thing that we know from all the people
12:08
that have worked with Burnham and that speak, if not on his behalf, speak, you know, supportively of him
12:13
is that he's Mr Affability. And Trump likes a bit of Mr Affability
12:18
I think that he has... Likes handsome guys. He's always talking about handsome men. He might like the eyelashes
12:23
He scented weakness in Keir Starmer a long time ago. That's why we've seen such a dreadful relationship
12:30
between the two of them, despite the brandishing of the invitation from the king, a tool that, of course, will not be available to Mr Burnham
12:37
to deploy during his first visit to the White House. So Trump likes a winner
12:41
He likes getting on with people. But he also is beholden to his own national security strategy, which only finds optimism in Europe in the rise of what it identifies as patriotic political parties
12:58
And by that, Donald Trump and his inner circle do not mean Labour
13:02
They do not even mean the Conservatives. They mean reform and they mean restore
13:07
And that ultimately is going to be Andy Burnham's biggest problem
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