Donald Trump no longer believes President Obama was born outside the United States, the Republican presidential nominee’s campaign manager and one of his closest allies told reporters this week.
More than five years after Mr. Trump spearheaded the so-called birther controversy by raising questions about the president’s origins, two people closest to the businessman’s campaign now say he’s accepted Mr. Obama as an American citizen.
“He believes President Obama was born here,” campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told CNN Friday morning. “There’s no question to me he was born in the United States, but he’s not been a particularly effective president, and that’s what this campaign is about.”
Her comments echoed those of Rudolph Guiliani, former New York mayor and Trump campaign surrogate.
“Donald Trump believes now that [Mr. Obama] was born in the United States,” Mr. Giuliani said during an interview Thursday on MSNBC. “I believe it. He believes it. We all believe it. It took a long time to get out.”
Beginning in 2011, Mr. Trump became one of the more vocal proponents of a theory concerning whether Mr. Obama was actually born in Honolulu. He repeatedly called on the commander in chief to release his birth certificate to the public, and at one point claimed to have sent a team of private investigators to Hawaii to conduct a probe on his behalf.
“We’re not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers,” Mr. Obama said during a press conference when the White House released copies of his long-form birth certificate in April 2011.
Mr. Giuliani said Mr. Trump abandoned the birther theory within the last two or three years.
“As per Donald Trump,” the former mayor told “Hardball” host Chris Matthews. “He has told me that he is proud of the fact that he finally got Obama to produce his birth certificate.”
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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