Donald Trump: Ted Cruz’s Canadian birthplace could be ‘very precarious’ for GOP

Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump still can’t avoid getting himself into a “birther” controversy.

Inserting a new wrinkle into the race, Mr. Trump suggested Wednesday that Sen. Ted Cruz actively quash any forthcoming legal challenges over being born in Canada and his eligibility to serve as president.

The senator from Texas, meanwhile, said the matter is settled legally and there are more pressing concerns facing the country as the two men jockey for front-runner status in the early voting state of Iowa.

“I don’t want to have a thing like this happen,” Mr. Trump said on “Fox and Friends.” “I will say, though, that the Democrats, if they bring a lawsuit on it, I mean, you have to get it solved. I would like to see Ted do something where maybe he goes in a pre-emptive fashion into court to try and get some kind of an order, because I would not like to see that happen.”

Mr. Trump, who repeatedly raised questions about President Obama’s birthplace in 2011, said he is bringing up Mr. Cruz’s eligibility only because of questions from news media.

“I said, you know, it’s a problem. I’d love to see him get it straightened out,” he said.

Mr. Cruz told reporters in Iowa on Wednesday that people will continue to make “political noise” out of the issue, but the legal matter is straightforward.

“Look, as a legal matter the question is quite straightforward [in] settled law that the child of a U.S. citizen born abroad is a natural-born citizen,” Mr. Cruz said.

Under the Constitution, a person has to be a “natural born citizen” of the United States to serve as president. Though Mr. Cruz was born in Calgary, most legal professionals — including former solicitors general under Mr. Obama and President George W. Bush — agree that the senator, whose mother is a U.S. citizen, is a natural-born citizen. Mr. Cruz renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2014.

Mr. Cruz also pointed to the examples of Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, who was born on a U.S. military base in the Panama Canal Zone, and former Michigan Gov. George Romney, a presidential candidate in 1968 and father of 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney, who was born in Mexico when his parents were Mormon missionaries.

“As last night’s events demonstrated, I think there are serious issues facing the American people, serious issues to be decided in this election, and that’s where our focus is going to stay, is on the real issues that matter to the men and women [in] this country,” Mr. Cruz said.

In an interview Tuesday with NH1 News in New Hampshire, Mr. Trump made clear that he personally is not questioning Mr. Cruz’s citizenship, but that other people are asking about it.

Indeed, as recently as a few months ago, Mr. Trump appeared to accept Mr. Cruz’s eligibility to run for the White House.

Asked in September whether he thought Mr. Cruz was ineligible to run because he was born in Canada, Mr. Trump told ABC’s Jonathan Karl: “No, from what I understand, everything is fine.

“I hear that it was checked out by every attorney and every which way and I understand Ted is in fine shape,” he said.

But in December 2014 — before anyone had officially announced a presidential run — Mr. Trump told Fox 5 DC that he thought Mr. Cruz’s birthplace was a “real obstacle” for him.

“I like him,” Mr. Trump said. “But Ted Cruz has said he was born in Canada, and if you say you’re born in a different country, in theory, you’re not supposed to be able to run. So I think that’s a real obstacle for him.”

Mr. Trump claimed credit in 2011 when the White House released Mr. Obama’s long-form birth certificate to put to rest talk that the president was not born in Hawaii.

Asked about the discussion over Mr. Cruz’s birthplace, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday, “It would be quite ironic if after seven or eight years of drama around the president’s birth certificate, if Republican primary voters were to choose Sen. Cruz as their nominee, somebody who actually wasn’t born in the United States and only 18 months ago renounced his Canadian citizenship.”

Mr. Trump has said the “birther” issue as it relates to Mr. Obama started with Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. Fact-checkers have concluded that the movement has ties to some of Mrs. Clinton’s supporters, but not her campaign.