Since his return to the White House, President Donald Trump has issued over 270 executive orders.

That includes two orders issued in August 2026 addressing birthright citizenship, a subject seemingly settled by the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision. In June, the high court struck down Trump’s effort to deny citizenship to children born to foreign parents who are unlawfully in the United States.

One order directs federal agencies not to recognize U.S. citizenship for children of certain foreign national parents. They include the children of an “alien enemy,” meaning citizens of a foreign country that is at war with the United States, and children of parents who are employees of a foreign government – such as ambassadors, for example.

The second executive order calls on federal agencies to curtail so-called “birth tourism,” which it defines this way: the “entry of any foreign national into the United States via a nonimmigrant visa for the purpose of giving birth on American soil.”

As someone who has studied citizenship law, I found the two birthright executive eye-catching. At first glance, they seemed to defy the Supreme Court’s birthright citizenship decision. But on closer examination, the picture is not so clear. That’s because the orders target aspects of birthright citizenship that the Supreme Court did not address in its June decision.

The Supreme Court decision

On the first day of his second term, Trump issued an executive order directing federal agencies........

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