The Right’s Stupidest Reactions to the Birthright Citizenship Ruling
Stephen Miller suggested a “hard look” at pregnant people traveling to the U.S., Trump asked Congress to step in, and Mike Johnson turned into a car.
Photo: Getty Images, Fox News, Twitter/@atrupar Politics birthright citizenship
In what Politico dubbed “perhaps the most high-profile case of the year,” the Supreme Court on Tuesday officially blocked Trump’s attempt to kill birthright citizenship, a constitutional amendment that grants nationality to anyone born on U.S. soil.
Trump has long opposed birthright citizenship, railing against it as early as 2015; calling America “STUPID” because of it last May; and pledging to end the decades-old precedent while signing a flurry of evil executive orders during his first day back in office. So even though the decision is being hailed as a big, beautiful loss, the fact of the matter remains… it was a really close fucking call.
“Today’s decision reaffirms a long settled constitutional protection, but this 150-year-old right should never have been brought before the Supreme Court,” Lupe M. Rodríguez, executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, told Jezebel in a statement. “Birthright citizenship is a core part of what it means to be American and guarantees that all children born here are equal under the law.”
5-4 on “is the constitution constitutional” is a real hell of a judgement
— Shivam Bhatt (@shivambhatt.bsky.social) June 30, 2026 at 4:27 PM
Now, to clarify, in Trump v. Barbara, the court ruled not on whether ending birthright citizenship is unconstitutional, but on whether lower courts can issue injunctions that apply across the country. On paper, the ruling came to a 6-3 decision, dissented by Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch. However, it was really a 5-4 split because Brett Kavanaugh believed the executive order did not violate the Constitution, but rather, a federal statute. Eep.
Still, a loss for Trump is a loss for Trump—and as expected, the right has been crashing out since the news broke. So, without further ado! A catalog of the most embarrassing meltdowns, in no particular order.
Mike Lee Suggested a Bizarre New Way of Packing the Court
About an hour before the ruling was announced, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), one of Trump’s most embarrassingly avid MAGA warriors, preemptively crowed and threw his hat in the ring for World’s Dumbest Hypothetical Questions. “If a woman gives birth at the Supreme Court, is her baby entitled to automatic status as a justice?” he tweeted.
To sarcastically invoke the words of Italian celebrity chef Gino D’Acampo: “If my grandma had wheels, she’d be a bike.”
I bet this goes hard if you’re fucking stupid https://t.co/sqhoO1A7BX
— Jamie Bonkiewicz (@JamieBonkiewicz) June 30, 2026
Lee’s analogy was promptly rinsed across social media, especially given he’s meant to be some sort of expert in constitutional law. “The answer, you trolling nitwit, is no,” Robbie Sherwood, a communications director for Arizona state House Democrats, replied. “Even though said hypothetical baby would be a better Supreme Court justice than Kavanaugh, Alito and Thomas.”
Clearly, Lee never learned his lesson, because in response to the actual ruling, he tweeted—again. “In today’s world, unrestricted, automatic birthright citizenship is suicidal,” he wrote. “The Supreme Court could and should have read the Fourteenth Amendment as something other than a suicide pact.” He later added, in a separate tweet, that birthright citizenship “cheapens the citizenship of actual Americans.” Sorry not sorry to say, Mike—not as much as you do.
Stephen Miller Floated a Pregnant Travel Ban
Speaking on Fox News (ugh) with Jesse Watters (UGH), White House Chief of Staff (slash anti-immigrant demon) Stephen Miller was discussing the ruling when he launched into a tirade about pregnant people visiting the U.S., and floated just policing them altogether. Great!
“If you have birthright citizenship, it means if a person comes here nine months pregnant to go look around at some things, in a couple of weeks, that is the mother of a lifetime American citizen and a direct line into American cash and welfare for the rest of that child’s life,” Miller said. Laughing in response, Watters replied, “Are we banning pregnant women from America?”
“Stephen Miller wants to check if women are pregnant or not” is an ad I would run with pictures of his face everywhere.
— wes(is no longer)injapan (@wesinjapan.bsky.social) July 1, 2026 at 1:36 AM
“What I’m saying, Jesse, is that you have to now think very carefully about who you let into your country, even on a temporary basis,” Miller replied, adding, “there’s a lot of things we have to take a hard look at.”
Gross. To quote (kind of) Hunter Biden… shut up, you ugly fuck.
Mike Johnson Became an Old Car
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.)—who monitors porn intake with his son—received the news while holding a press conference, and his literal live reaction featured him growling, grumbling, and moaning as he took in the news.
“The decision is children born in the United States of parents are lawfully or temporarily are subject to jurisdiction of the United States and are citizenships at birth under the 14th Amendment’s citizenship laws,” a reporter said, asking Johnson: “What’s your reaction to that, Mr. Speaker?”
an unhappy Mike Johnson growls when informed in real time by a reporter that the Supreme Court ruled to uphold birthright citizenship
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) June 30, 2026 at 3:38 PM
After sounding like an old, rickety car for a few seconds, Johnson replied that he would need to read the opinion before saying he was “very disappointed.” “I think it subjects the country to serious challenges going forward,” he said, adding, “I mean, I’m sure the conclusion from this opinion is that we’re going to amend the Constitution to fix that, as we all know, it’s a big challenge to amend the Constitution.”
Now, I’ll say. But if anyone knows—or doesn’t know—how to awkwardly teeter around talks of usurping the Constitution, it’s none other than the House Speaker himself.
Trump Asked Congress to Step in
The president—who in April attended a SCOTUS hearing in the case, thus becoming the first sitting president ever to do so—naturally, is not taking the news well. As such, he’s taking his own DIY methods of banning birthright citizenship, aka asking Congress to pass “legislation” banning it, which, er, would be impossible, but we’ll get to that in a second.
“The Supreme Court upheld Birthright Citizenship, which is too bad for our Country,” Trump posted to Truth Social. “But we can easily make it up in Congress through Legislation, with the support of the President, that has now been determined during this process.”
Imagine being president and still not understanding the difference between a law and a constitutional amendment. Trump thinks Congress can override constitutional rights with regular legislation. That’s middle-school civics failure. How are you, MAGAs this fucking dumb? pic.twitter.com/cY3D2Q7KIA
— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) June 30, 2026
Now, never mind the fact that all this seems like ANOTHER egregious authoritarian power grab—but you’d not be able to pass such a thing with legislation alone. And such a move would be banned from the start—not only because the GOP would need 60 votes to pass it through the Senate, but because the GOP only has 53 seats in the upper chamber.
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