Maxine Waters Takes Aim at Melania Trump in Fiery Speech

Democratic Representative Maxine Waters of California took a shot at First Lady Melania Trump during a protest against DOGE in Los Angeles over the weekend, calling on former President Donald Trump to investigate and possibly deport her.

Videos of Waters’ speech quickly went viral as she questioned Melania Trump’s citizenship status—despite her becoming a U.S. citizen in 2006—as a way to push back against Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship.

“When he [Trump] talks about birthright, and he’s going to undo the fact that the Constitution allows those who are born here, even if the parents are undocumented, they have a right to stay in America. If he wants to start looking so closely to find those who were born here and their parents were undocumented, maybe he ought to first look at Melania,” Waters declared from the stage, as seen in multiple videos circulating online.

“We don’t know whether or not her parents were documented. And maybe we better just take a look,” she continued.

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Melania Trump, originally from the former Yugoslavia, became a U.S. citizen in 2006. She is the first naturalized citizen to serve as First Lady and only the second to be born outside the U.S., following Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, wife of President John Quincy Adams, who was born in London in 1775.

A 2018 report from The New York Times highlighted that after Melania Trump secured her own U.S. citizenship, she sponsored her parents—originally from what is now Slovenia—for green cards, eventually leading to their naturalization. Viktor and Amalija Knavs officially became U.S. citizens that same year. Amalija Knavs passed away in 2024, while Viktor has been spotted at public events alongside the Trump family, including sitting with Barron Trump during the inauguration.

Trump’s executive order seeks to interpret the 14th Amendment, which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” The order aims to exclude birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants or those born to parents on temporary non-immigrant visas. Legal challenges have since been filed in federal court.

Waters is no stranger to making controversial statements in public. Just last month, she made headlines for an outburst against both Trump and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk at an event in Washington, D.C.

During a rally where Democratic lawmakers protested Musk’s influence within the Treasury Department, Waters lashed out, accusing him of wielding power without voter consent.

“We have got to tell Elon Musk that nobody elected your ass. Nobody told you you could get all of our private information. Nobody told you you could be in charge of the payments of this country,” Waters shouted.

While Musk himself has never been elected to public office, his political ally—Trump—was, defeating former Vice President Kamala Harris by a considerable margin. Furthermore, senior advisors and Cabinet members, like Musk, typically serve at the discretion of the president rather than being elected by the public.

Waters went on to accuse Musk of profiting off everyday Americans to fund his business ventures, including SpaceX.

“We have told you that you’ve made enough money off our government yourself, and now you want to take everybody else’s payroll and make sure that they don’t make the kind of money that you’ve made. Oh, you want to use our money to go to Mars,” she declared.

The congresswoman, who is herself a millionaire, also took aim at Trump and other wealthy figures, alleging they are working to consolidate political and economic power in the country.