Ghassan Hitto, American, New Syrian PM

Ghassan Hitto has accepted the post of Prime Minister for the Syrian Opposition. Doesn’t our constitution forbid an American citizen from such activities? Doesn’t the naturalization process require one to swear loyalty to the United States? Etc. etc…

That doesn’t necessarily count as disloyalty.

For example, what if an American man took the position of CEO of the French automobile company Peugeot? He would probably have much more influence than some leader of an opposition party in Syria.

What if a Canadian became head of Coca Cola? He would wield enormous resources, even in the USA. Would that bother you?

Short answer, no. The Constitution forbids any American official from serving any other government, but not American citizens.

Eamon de Valera, famously, was an American citizen who served as both the head of the Irish state and government. I don’t have time to look it up, but IIRC there was an American citizen who headed a South American country for awhile.

And I’d also point out that the Syrian opposition is not the official Syrian government. They’d like to be the government, but that’s another story.

Also, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, president of Estonia, and Valdas Adamkus, former President of Lithuania, both US citizens. And Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, former Latvian President, Canadian. AFAICT they all renounced their citizenships, but it wasn’t the US/CA who requested they do that but their home countries as a condition of holding office. The “renouncing foreign allegiances” part of naturalization is mostly boilerplate (maybe not during war).