Donald Trump finally admitted that Barack Obama was born in the United States, acknowledging a lie that catapulted him into the American political arena five years ago.
The US Republican presidential nominee sought to draw a line under the so-called birther movement he has led since 2011 to discredit the country’s first black president by suggesting he was born outside the country and therefore illegitimately elected as the US president.
“President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period,” Mr Trump said at an event billed initially by his campaign as a press conference during which he took no questions. The New York businessman’s admission came hours after his campaign spokesman released a statement saying Mr Trump now believed Mr Obama was born in the US.
The 44th US president was born in Hawaii.
Mr Trump toyed with the media, flagging a “major statement” at a morning press conference in the “Presidential Ballroom” of his new Washington hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, four blocks from the house he hopes to make his home for the next four years in the November 8th election.
New hotel
The event drew intense media interest as television networks awaited the businessman’s direct admission that his birther claims were false. The candidate delayed the start of his event by almost an hour and, when he appeared, proceeded to promote his new hotel and invite a series of military veterans supporting the candidate to speak, praising him and his potential as president. In three sentences at the end of his event, Mr Trump attempted to end the birther claims as an issue in his campaign with his admission but delivered another lie by falsely suggesting that
Hillary Clinton
in her 2008 campaign “started the birther controversy” and “I finished it”.
The businessman offered no apology or expressed no regret for his past claims. He ignored shouted questions from angry reporters anticipating a press conference and refused to speak to the media afterwards as he toured his new hotel.
Mrs Clinton said Mr Trump’s birther campaign was founded on “an outrageous lie” and there was “no erasing it in history”. She called on the Republican to apologise to the president.
“President Obama’s successor cannot and will not be the man who led the racist birther movement. Period,” she tweeted.
Mr Obama himself reacted with scorn when asked about Mr Trump’s admission in a brief exchange with reporters in the Oval Office. “I was pretty confident about where I was born,” he said. “I think most people were as well.”
Mr Trump has been the chief cheerleader of the fraudulent claim that has fuelled wild conspiracy theories among hard-right conservatives opposed to Mr Obama’s presidency. He was still sticking by his “birtherism” claim as recently as Thursday when in an interview with the Washington Post he remained unwilling to say Mr Obama was born in the US.
