--- title: Ted Cruz Citizenship: White House Says Questions 'Ironic' description: Given questions about President Obama. canonical: https://time.com/4169941/ted-cruz-citizenship-donald-trump-josh-earnest/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-06T19:31:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:50:18.325Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House Says Cruz Birthplace Questions Are 'Ironic' og:description: Given questions about President Obama. og:url: https://time.com/4169941/ted-cruz-citizenship-donald-trump-josh-earnest/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt367966e7a608a1dd/698877e08e060123b5464014/ted-cruz-citizenship.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas and 2016 presidential candidate, speaks during a town hall meeting at Dordt College in Sioux City, Iowa, U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Says Cruz Birthplace Questions Are 'Ironic' twitter:description: Given questions about President Obama. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt367966e7a608a1dd/698877e08e060123b5464014/ted-cruz-citizenship.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Says Cruz Birthplace Questions Are 'Ironic' by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jan 6, 2016 7:31 PM UTC  Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas and 2016 presidential candidate, speaks during a town hall meeting at Dordt College in Sioux City, Iowa, U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016. Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas and 2016 presidential candidate, speaks during a town hall meeting at Dordt College in Sioux City, Iowa, U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016.Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jan 6, 2016 7:31 PM UTC Donald Trump isn’t the only person weighing in on Sen. Ted Cruz’s citizenship. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday that it would be “quite ironic” if Republicans nominate presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz given the drama President Obama faced about his birth certificate. Cruz was born in Canada to an American mother and moved to the U.S. when he was four. The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service and legal scholars [agree](http://www.factcheck.org/2015/03/ted-cruzs-presidential-eligibility/) that is most likely more than enough to qualify him as a “natural born citizen” under the U.S. Constitution. But Trump, who also questioned President Obama’s birth certificate, said in an interview with the Washington _Post_ Tuesday that Cruz’s birthplace was a [“very precarious”](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-says-cruzs-canadian-birth-could-be-very-precarious-for-gop/2016/01/05/5ce69764-b3f8-11e5-9388-466021d971de%5Fstory.html) issue. “Republicans are going to have to ask themselves the question: ‘Do we want a candidate who could be tied up in court for two years?’ That’d be a big problem,” he said. Earnest, the White House spokesman, was happy to play along. He noted in his Wednesday press conference that Cruz “actually wasn’t born in the U.S.” and [renounced his Canadian dual citizenship](http://time.com/2854513/ted-cruz-canadian-citizenship/) just 18 months ago. Cruz has tried to remain above the fray, suggesting in a tweet that Trump had “jumped the shark,” a term for something that’s past its prime. > [](https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/684512629726011392) **Read Next:** [_What the Supreme Court Could Say About Ted Cruz’s Canadian Past_](http://time.com/3754408/ted-cruz-history-natural-born/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4169941/ted-cruz-citizenship-donald-trump-josh-earnest/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4169941/ted-cruz-citizenship-donald-trump-josh-earnest/"},"headline":"White House Says Cruz Birthplace Questions Are 'Ironic'","datePublished":"2016-01-06T19:31:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:50:18.325Z","description":"Given questions about President Obama.","url":"https://time.com/4169941/ted-cruz-citizenship-donald-trump-josh-earnest/","keywords":["ted cruz","2016 Election topic","White House","Donald Trump","Josh Earnest"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt367966e7a608a1dd/698877e08e060123b5464014/ted-cruz-citizenship.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt367966e7a608a1dd/698877e08e060123b5464014/ted-cruz-citizenship.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas and 2016 presidential candidate, speaks during a town hall meeting at Dordt College in Sioux City, Iowa, U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016.","caption":"Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas and 2016 presidential candidate, speaks during a town hall meeting at Dordt College in Sioux City, Iowa, U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2016.","creditText":"Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/ted-cruz/","name":"ted cruz"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4169941/ted-cruz-citizenship-donald-trump-josh-earnest/","name":"White House Says Cruz Birthplace Questions Are 'Ironic'"}}]}] ```