Trump insists birthright citizenship only 'meant for the babies of slaves'

President Donald Trump insisted that the U.S. Supreme Court should revoke birthright citizenship because he said it was "meant for the babies of slaves."

During an interview with Politico this week, correspondent Dasha Burns asked Trump about the upcoming Supreme Court case.

"If the court sides with you and ends birthright citizenship, are you going to try to take away citizenship from people who already had it?" she wondered.

"I honestly haven't thought of that, but I will tell you this. The case is very interesting because that case was meant for the babies of slaves," Trump argued. "And if you look at the dates on the case, it was exactly having to do with the Civil War and all of a sudden their whole family becomes, you know, United States citizens."

"That case is all about slaves, the babies of slaves, and it was a good reason for doing it," he continued. "And that's all it was about."

Trump asserted that losing the case would be "devastating" for the country.

"Because our country cannot afford to house tens of millions of people that came in through birthright citizenship," he said. "When that happened, that was meant for the babies of slaves, and if you look at the exact dates that it was passed, it all had to do with the Civil War and the ending of the Civil War."

"It's that little period of time, and people now are starting to understand it."