Trump is still talking about Obama's birth certificate to anyone who will listen

(Image credit: Pool/Getty Images)

published 29 November 2017

Much to the chagrin of his advisers, President Trump continues to embrace debunked conspiracy theories, including that former President Barack Obama's birth certificate is fake and that he, Trump, lost the popular vote by more than 2 million votes due to massive, one-sided voter fraud, several people close to Trump told The New York Times.

Be it Twitter or a well-done steak, when Trump finds something he likes, he clings to it, and that's apparently why despite the facts proving otherwise, Trump still believes his pet theories. One Republican lawmaker told the Times he's used to Trump boasting about things that aren't true, like winning certain congressional districts that he lost, and another senator laughed when he described to the Times a conversation in which Trump brought up his doubts about Obama's birth certificate.

Trump is also claiming that the Access Hollywood tape featuring him bragging about sexually assaulting women — which he publicly admitted was real and apologized for — is fake, three people close to him told the Times. He told one Republican senator he doesn't think it's his voice, a statement that shocked advisers. There's nothing cute about any of this, Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) told the Times. "It's dangerous to democracy; you've got to have shared facts," he said. "And on so many of these, there's empirical evidence that says no: You didn't win the popular vote, there weren't more people at your inauguration than ever, that was your voice on that tape, you admitted it before."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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