Could Melania regain or claim Slovenian citizenship under current Slovenian law?
Executive summary
Current reporting says Melania Trump and her son Barron hold dual U.S.–Slovenian citizenship, and Senator Bernie Moreno’s recently introduced “Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025” would force dual citizens to renounce foreign nationality or be deemed to have relinquished U.S. citizenship [1] [2]. Legal experts in the coverage argue the bill would collide with long‑standing constitutional precedent that U.S. citizenship cannot be involuntarily taken away, so its prospects and immediate legal effect are uncertain [2] [3].
1. What the new U.S. bill would do — a simple description
The text being reported — the “Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025” — would bar U.S. citizens from simultaneously holding any foreign citizenship, require those affected to renounce non‑U.S. nationality within a year, and state that failure to do so would be treated as voluntary relinquishment of U.S. citizenship [2] [4].
2. Why Melania and Barron are named in news coverage
Multiple outlets cite Mary Jordan’s reporting and other biographies saying Melania naturalized in 2006 and retained Slovenian citizenship; Barron is reported to have Slovenian citizenship through his mother and to hold a Slovenian passport — facts the bill would directly affect if enacted [1] [3].
3. Constitutional and legal counterweights reported by experts
Media interviews with immigration lawyers and constitutional scholars cited in the coverage stress that decades of Supreme Court precedent protect against involuntary loss of citizenship: the Fourteenth Amendment and related rulings have long required voluntary surrender for denaturalisation, a point raised by multiple outlets and lawyers responding to the bill [2] [3] [5].
4. Political framing and motives visible in coverage
Senator Moreno frames the proposal as restoring “exclusive allegiance” to the United States and grounds it in concerns about conflicts of interest; commentators and some outlets call it a MAGA‑aligned, symbolic or theatrical measure that may be aimed at political signalling as much as legislative change [1] [6] [7].
5. Practical obstacles to immediate impact on Melania’s Slovenian status
Reports note the bill, if it became law, would create procedures for identification and enforcement, but they also emphasize that current U.S. practice allows dual citizenship and that the federal government does not keep a registry of dual nationals — meaning implementation would be complex and contested [8] [4].
6. How likely is the bill to affect Melania in the near term?
Coverage uniformly treats the bill as a proposal facing steep legal and political hurdles: critics say it likely would be challenged in courts and that historical case law makes involuntary stripping of citizenship problematic. Reporters and lawyers quoted call its passage and enforcement uncertain [2] [3] [5].
7. Competing narratives in the media — what to watch
Some outlets present the bill as an existential threat to high‑profile dual citizens and portray its sponsor as sincere about allegiance; others treat it as political theatre with limited legal bite. Both narratives appear in the reporting — the bill’s text would force a choice [2], while legal experts stress constitutional limits [3].
8. What the available sources do not say
Available sources do not provide Slovenian government statements about reclaiming or stripping Melania’s Slovenian citizenship, nor do they include the actual bill’s full legal text beyond summary descriptions; they also do not confirm whether Melania has formally retained Slovenian citizenship in Slovenian records (not found in current reporting).
9. Bottom line for readers
If the bill became law it would aim to force people like Melania and Barron to choose a single nationality by giving one‑year renunciation deadlines and deeming noncompliance an abandonment of U.S. citizenship [2]. However, constitutional precedent and the legal objections highlighted by lawyers in the coverage make immediate loss of U.S. citizenship unlikely without prolonged litigation and political change [3] [5]. Follow-up reporting should look for the bill’s committee progress, legal analyses quoting the full statutory language, and statements from Slovenian authorities about Melania’s current status [2] [8].