A Republican caller's live argument that citizenship should be limited to white people drew an instant rebuttal from a Democratic woman who blamed President Donald Trump for riling up white supremacists.
During Monday's Washington Journal program on C-SPAN, Jim, a North Dakota man calling on the Republican line, invoked America's first citizenship law to make his case. Victoria, a Connecticut woman on the Democrats' line, called it "disgusting" — and said it was the president's fault.
The 1790 Naturalization Act limited citizenship to "free white persons" — a restriction that lasted more than 160 years.
"The very first naturalization laws that they put in place in 1790 said you had to be a free white person of good character to become a citizen," Jim argued.
"They had no intention of flooding this nation with millions of people from the third world," he continued. "They never would have allowed this to happen, open borders. And I think they'd be disappointed when they looked at those inner cities and things right now."
"Whoever builds the clubhouse decides who the members are going to be... And in 1790, the census said that we were 99% white Anglo, and we were that way all the way through the 1960s. It's only in the last 40 years of Democrats flooding this country. We see all the mess."
Victoria directed her response at Echevarria, a Latino host, asking how he felt hearing Jim's whites-only diatribe about America on its 250th birthday.
"Pedro. As a person of color, I wonder how you feel with that previous caller and how he defined America 250 years later," she asked but the host didn't answer.
"It's disgusting!" the caller exclaimed. "I'm disgusted at this country. I can also remember 1976 and how that whole year it seemed like we were in celebration mode. That's not how we are today. And why is that? Because we have a white supremacist in office who is riling up all the other white supremacists like that North Dakota caller you just had."
The Supreme Court has since gutted the Voting Rights Act through a series of decisions, most recently in April 2026.
"Fifty years ago, we were on the heels of civil rights legislation that is now being repealed," Victoria concluded. "There were also African American people in this country in 1790. They were in enslavement."