Donald Trump was in the federal courthouse in Manhattan, and very happy to be there. It was 1988, and his wife, the former Ivana Zelní?ková of Gottwaldov, Czechoslovakia, was one of 142 immigrants just sworn in as U.S. citizens. By then, the Trumps had been married for eleven years and had three children. "It was about time I became an American," Ivana Trump told me, a reporter on the court beat, after a joyful ceremony that, as she put it, "made it hard not to cry." Donald Trump added: "It's a great country, and that's where a great woman should be."
The oath ceremony is a nearly religious ritual in which the American gospel—the good news of freedom and democracy—is preached to the newest members of the choir. "By your presence, America is vastly enriched," the judge told the new Americans. He was not referring to their net worth.
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