"What foreign leaders could have been American president?" Topic

The only constitutional stipulation is that he/she be a natural born American citizen and 35 years old. I will leave the interpretation of "natural born " to…..
John McCain was born in the Canal Zone of bothbAmericam parents, so only very mildly controversial to the tut-tut crowd.

Winston Churchill had an American mother, so dubious.

However Golda Meir was born in New York so could have been an American president.

Was Eamon de Valera born in the USA? (Not that I would want him. )

Any others?

Churchill was out, since, as a British officer, he had taken the oath of allegiance to Queen Victoria, thus voiding any claim he might have made to dual citizenship.

Ditto, Meir, once she took the oath of allegiance to Israel.

IIRC, the first three or four presidents of Liberia were American-born, but, being black, none of them would have had a chance of being elected U. S. president anyway.

Lady Churchill was born in US, but was she a US citizen at the time of Winston's birth?

Boris Johnson was born in New York, but it's bad enough having him in charge of London.

These are the actual US Constitutional Requirements;

"No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States."

So Churchill would have been right out, as probably the others on your list with the exception of Golda Meir.

Mussolini. He'd simply have had to work on his accent and tell people he was from Rome, Georgia.

I've been there. It's hard to understand the locals, anyway.

It's been suggested, of course, that Andrew Jackson may have been born in Ireland rather than the US.

But it was always suggested in a whisper, in case he heard and simply beat the speaker to death on the spot.

Of course there is also a big difference between being eligible and being elected.

"These are the actual US Constitutional Requirements…"

amendments can be added
YouTube link

Kristina Keneally (nee Kerscher), born in Las vegas in 1968, was the 42nd Premier of New South Wales from 2009 to 2011. She only renounced her US citizenship before standing for election as Premier.

Actually back when Ahhnold first became Governor of California and was very popular there was the beginning of a small movement to do this. It was never really serious though and as difficult as the Constitution is to amend, extremely unlikely. Anyway the movement never had any real steam behind it and by the end of his time in office in CA any wave to move him into the White House had disappeared.

What? You do mean the former preseidents weren't aliens?

Frederick the great's little brother got offered the job, I seem to recall.

The current King of Thailand was born in Cambridge, Massachusets.

Joseph Roberts (first President of Liberia) was US born – and a number of other major, early Liberians count too.

Lester Bird was PM of Antigua and born in NYC

Janet Jagan was US born and became both PM and President of Guyana. She was certainly skilled enough in the world to have been able to make a move in US politics if her connections had been right.

Mussolini. He'd simply have had to work on his accent and tell people he was from Rome, Georgia.

I've been there. It's hard to understand the locals, anyway.

As an off-and-on resident of Rome, I'd have to say he would fit in quite well here. And if he returned, maybe we would get some decent Italian food.

Only a "foreign leader" in the most technical and military of senses, but Sir Henry Clinton, commander-in-chief of the Crown forces in the latter half of the AWI. Born in New York.