U.S. Presidents who held dual-citizenship at birth:
1) James Buchanan- His father (James Buchanan) was a citizen of Ireland who immigrated to the United States and was naturalized. Ireland at the time was part of the British Empire. Under the force of “nemo potest exuere patriam” the senior Buchanan remained a British subject his entire life under British law and bestowed that status to his son at his son’s birth. President Buchanan would have been a British subject his entire life under British law.
2) Chester Alan Arthur. Arthur, like Buchanan, was the son of an Irish immigrant (William Arthur). Like James Buchanan’s father, Arthur’s was also naturalized. As was the case with Buchanan, Arthur was also a British subject under British law. Unlike Buchanan, Arthur’s British nationality was rescinded with the passage of the Naturalization Act, 33 &34 Vict. c. 14 in 1870 (at age 41).
3) Barack Obama-When Barack Obama II was born, Kenya was a British colony, still part of the United Kingdom’s empire. As a Kenyan native, Barack Obama Sr. was a British subject whose citizenship status was governed by The British Nationality Act of 1948. That same act governed the status of Obama Sr.’s children.
At the time of his birth, Barack Obama Jr. was both a U.S. citizen and a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies (or the UKC) by virtue of being born to a father who was a citizen of the UKC.
Obama’s British citizenship was short-lived. On Dec. 12, 1963, Kenya formally gained its independence from the United Kingdom.
Additionally, Presidents Washington and Madison were honorary citizens of the French Republic, as was Tom Paine, who was elected to the French National Convention. The French Revolutionary Assembly conferred honorary citizenship on Washington, Alexander Hamilton and Madison in 1793.
On the shoulders of Leo Donofrio.
And Thomas Jefferson.
I didn't know that Paine was actually elected to the French National Convention.
Born to naturalized father. Father's previous citizenship abjured.
Chester Alan Arthur
Hid the fact from everybody. What they didn't know they couldn't object to.
Barack Obama
Partus Sequitur Patrem. Alien in Spirit if not in the law. Exactly the sort of man the founders created article II to prevent.