Remember back in 2011 when Donald Trump essentially kick-started his political career on Good Morning America by starting the “birtherism” controversy which questioned President Obama’s US citizenship? A dark day for American politics, Trump’s accusation on GMA would actually gain him credibility as an influential figure in politics and encouraged conspiracy theorists to keep up the controversy. Turns out, we still haven’t settled the matter, even though Obama’s been in office for 8 years now.
The White House released President Obama’s birth certificate in 2011 to settle the matter, but when asked by the Washington Post this week, five years later, Trump still couldn’t bring himself to admit he was wrong.
In true politician style, Trump’s senior communications adviser, Jason Miller released a public statement trying to assure the public Trump has moved on from the “birther” issue:
“Hillary Clinton’s campaign first raised this issue to smear then-candidate Barack Obama in her very nasty, failed 2008 campaign for President. This type of vicious and conniving behavior is straight from the Clinton Playbook. As usual, however, Hillary Clinton was too weak to get an answer. Even the MSNBC show Morning Joe admits that it was Clinton’s henchmen who first raised this issue, not Donald J. Trump.
In 2011, Mr. Trump was finally able to bring this ugly incident to its conclusion by successfully compelling President Obama to release his birth certificate. Mr. Trump did a great service to the President and the country by bringing closure to the issue that Hillary Clinton and her team first raised. Inarguably, Donald J. Trump is a closer. Having successfully obtained President Obama’s birth certificate when others could not, Mr. Trump believes that President Obama was born in the United States.
Mr. Trump is now totally focused on bringing jobs back to America, defeating radical Islamic terrorism, taking care of our veterans, introducing school choice opportunities and rebuilding and making our inner cities safe again.”
One thing about the Trump camp excels at—staying on brand. They manage to slam Hillary and assert Trump’s greatness all at the same time, which is quintessential “Make America Great Again” campaigning. Whether or not crusading a conspiracy theory against the President of the United States “did a great service to the President and the country” is up to you, but the entire re-birth of the “birther” issue does beg the question if Donald Trump is a legitimate politician now, or if he’s still just the same shit-stirrer he was five years ago.