Trump Said In 2015 And 2016 He Didn't Know If Obama Birth Certificate Was Real

"When I questioned he gave whatever it was he gave. I'm not exactly sure what he gave but he gave something called a birth certificate. I don't know if it was or not."


On Thursday, Donald Trump's presidential campaign issued a statement saying the Republican nominee now believes Obama was born in the United States.

Trump plans to address the issue on Friday himself, but the statement from Thursday evening claims Trump brought the so-called birther issue to its conclusion in 2011 when Obama released his long-form birth certificate. But that was false: Trump kept stoking Obama birther conspiracy theories after that – including in one 2014 interview on Irish TV.

In another interview found by BuzzFeed News from March of 2015 on Fox News, Trump said he didn't know if President Obama's birth certificate was real. In another interview on CNN in January of 2016, Trump also said he didn't know if Obama was a citizen.

"I don't raise it," Trump said to Megyn Kelly, "people ask me, they always ask me. Hillary was the original, she was questioning Obama, then John McCain questioned, but they never got anything. When I questioned he gave whatever it was he gave. I'm not exactly sure what he gave but he gave something called a birth certificate. I don't know if it was or not."

There is no evidence that Clinton or McCain ever questioned Obama's citizenship.

Trump made the brief comments in an exchange discussing how Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was born in Canada to an American mother. Trump questioned if Cruz would be eligible to run for president. Cruz had just announced his run.

Even in January of 2016, Trump was still saying he didn't know if Obama was a citizen.

"Who knows," he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer when asked if Obama was a citizen. "Who knows? Who cares right now? We're talking about something else, OK. I mean, I have my own theory on Obama. Someday I'll write a book. I'll do another book, and it will do very successfully."

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