Donald Trump shares far-right claim about Nikki Haley not being eligible for presidency over her birth

Donald Trump took to his social media platform to share a claim about Nikki Haley, that she is not eligible to become president of the United States because her parents were not US citizens when she was born.

On his Truth Social profile, Trump posted a screenshot of the claim being made about Haley by the far-right website The Gateway Pundit.

The Gateway Pundit posted a screenshot on X, which read, "In @NikkiHaley's situation, reports indicate that her parents were not U.S. citizens at the time of her birth in 1972."

"Based on the Constitution as interpreted by @PaulIngrassia, this disqualifies Haley from presidential or vice-presidential candidacy under the 12th Amendment," it further read, which was shared by Trump.

In the US, a person must be a "natural born citizen" and at least 35 years old and must have resided in the country for at least 14 years to be eligible for the presidency.

Notably, Haley's parents were immigrants, who became citizens after her birth in 1972. She was born in South Carolina and has lived in the nation her entire life. In her 2012 autobiography, she wrote that her parents "were born in the Punjab region of India".

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What about the claims?

NBC News reported that in an email, Harvard Law School professor emeritus Laurence Tribe wrote: "The birther claims against Nikki Haley are totally baseless as a legal and constitutional matter."

"I can't imagine what Trump hopes to gain by those claims unless it's to play the race card against the former governor and UN ambassador as a woman of colour — and to draw on the wellsprings of anti-immigrant prejudice by reminding everyone that Haley's parents weren't citizens when she was born in the USA," Tribe added.

US-based media outlets have reported that the 14th Amendment clearly states that "all persons born or naturalised in the United States" are citizens.

The 14th Amendment was enacted after the Civil War to confer citizenship upon Black Americans who had previously been slaves.

As quoted by NBC News, Burt Neuborne, a professor emeritus at New York University Law School and the founding legal director of the Brennan Center for Justice said that "someone should tell him [Trump] that the North won" the Civil War.

"If you're born in the United States, the whole purpose of the 14th Amendment was to make you a citizen," he further added.

(With inputs from agencies)