Obama: Born in U.S.A.
Trump was a prominent leader of one of the more unusual political movements in U.S. history, the so-called ‘birther’ conspiracy movement that insisted, despite all evidence to the contrary (including release of Obama’s long-form birth certificate) that the president was born in the country his father was from, Kenya.
To prove his U.S. birth, the state of Hawaii, where Obama was born, released his birth certificate in 2008 and in 2011 the White House obtained from Hawaii, and released, Obama’s long form birth certificate, but these moves sill did not satisfy Trump. However, apparently something — the passage of time or perhaps his running for political office for the first time — has satisfied Trump.
For now the Republican nominee for the presidency officially believes that Obama was indeed born where he was indeed born, the United States. That is if his adviser Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York, and his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, can be believed.
On a program called ‘Hardball’ on MSNBC on Thursday night, Giuliani, who has been speaking on behalf of Trump throughout the campaign, said that “Donald Trump believes now that (President Obama) was born in the United States.”
Giuliani added that he also believed it (for Giuliani was a birther, too) and reiterated that Trump “believes it, we all believe it. But it took a long time to get it out.” He did not give the specifics as to how this conversion had come about.
Friday on CNN, Conway offered the same information. “He (Trump) believes President Obama was born here,” she said, inexplicably adding that she “was born in Camden by the way – New Jersey. He (Obama) was born in Hawaii.”
Conway, irrelevantly, added that “the point is what kind of President has he been?” An answer might lie in Obama’s approval rating, which has of late been between 50 and 54 percent, high for a two-term president near the end of his mandate.
Trump: no comment
Trump was of course not alone in believing Obama was not born in the U.S. as the birther movement had many adherents, and may continue to. A Gallup poll from May of 2011 found 23% of Republican Party members continued to doubt Obama was born in the U.S. and 13 percent of Americans overall did.
Releasing a long form birth certificate was something a president had never had to do before. When the White House released the long form certificate, Dan Pfieffer, then an assistant to the president, said it was being done in order to help the country move forward without such a distraction.
“At a time of great consequence for this country,” Pfieffer wrote. “When we should be debating how we win the future, reduce our deficit, deal with high gas prices, and bring stability to the Middle East, Washington, DC, was once again distracted by a fake issue.
“The President’s hope is that with this step, we can move on to debating the bigger issues that matter to the American people and the future of the country.”
Five plus years later it would appear Trump is able to move forward…or is he? The caveat emptor? As of this writing at 6:03 Friday evening, Trump himself has yet to state that he believes President Obama was born where he was born.
