On Thursday evening, Donald Trump invited a reporter from The Washington Post on to his plane, and the reporter asked if Trump — a leading proponent of the falsehood that President Obama was born outside the U.S., and is thus ineligible to be president — is now ready to acknowledge that Obama was born in Hawaii. He wasn't. "I'll answer that question at the right time," Trump said. "I just don't want to answer it yet."
His campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, recently tried to put the "birther" issue behind the campaign, telling CNN earlier this week that Trump believes Obama was born in the U.S. When reminded of that, Trump responded: "It's okay. She's allowed to speak what she thinks. I want to focus on jobs. I want to focus on other things." Thursday night, Trump's campaign released a statement saying "Mr. Trump believes that President Obama was born in the United States," blaming Hillary Clinton's campaign for first raising the issue (PolitiFact rates that claim False), and taking credit for bringing "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."
So why won't Trump himself renounce his aggressive promotion of this conspiracy theory himself and just admit Obama is American-born? "I don't talk about it anymore," Trump said. "The reason I don't is because then everyone is going to be talking about it as opposed to jobs, the military, the vets, security." When The Post said that just saying the magic words that Obama was born in Hawaii might help his sizable problem with black voters, Trump reportedly glared at the reporter and said, "I think it hangs over the reporters."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
In other news, Trump said he won't release his taxes because of an IRS audit (son Donald Jr. just said his father's tax returns would just "detract from his main message") and that he won't release any more health information before the election. Below, you can watch a lively discussion on Thursday's Kelly File about Trump's lingering birtherism shadow. Peter Weber
-
Israel: Losing the American publicFeature A recent poll finds American support for Israel's military action in Gaza has fallen from 50% to 32%
-
Unmaking AmericansFeature Trump is threatening to revoke the citizenship of foreign-born Americans. Could he do that?
-
EPA: A bonfire of climate change regulationsFeature The Environmental Protection Agency wants to roll back its 'endangerment finding,' a ruling that lets the agency regulate carbon emissions
-
Trump sends FBI to patrol DC, despite falling crimeSpeed Read Washington, D.C., 'has become one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the world,' Trump said
-
Trump officials reinstating 2 Confederate monumentsSpeed Read The administration has plans to 'restore Confederate names and symbols' discarded in the wake of George Floyd's 2020 murder
-
Trump nominates Powell critic for vacant Fed seatspeed read Stephen Miran, the chair of Trump's Council of Economic Advisers and a fellow critic of Fed chair Jerome Powell, has been nominated to fill a seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors
-
ICE scraps age limits amid hiring pushSpeed Read Anyone 18 or older can now apply to be an ICE agent
-
Trump's global tariffs take effect, with new additionsSpeed Read Tariffs on more than 90 US trading partners went into effect, escalating the global trade war
-
House committee subpoenas Epstein filesSpeed Read The House Oversight Committee has issued a subpoena to the Justice Department for its Jeffrey Epstein files with an Aug. 19 deadline
-
India rejects Trump threat over Russian oilSpeed Read The president said he would raise tariffs on India for buying and selling Russian oil
-
NY's Hochul vows response to Texas gerrymanderSpeed Read Gov. Kathy Hochul has promised to play ball with redistricting that favors the Democrats
