A Trump campaign official said on Thursday in a statement that Donald Trump now believes President Obama was born in the United States.
In the issued statement, the campaign praises Trump at length, and states that he brought the so-called birther issue to its conclusion in 2011 when Obama released his long-form birth certificate. But that's false. Trump didn't stop being a birther in 2011 — he continued stoking conspiracy theories after that.
In one 2014 exchange with Irish TV, for instance, he defended his birtherism at length.
"You questioned his citizenship during his campaign, and you said afterwards if he produced that long-form birth certificate, you'd produce your tax returns. But you didn't do it, did you?" asked Ireland TV3’s Colette Fitzpatrick in May 2014.
"Well, I don't know — did he do it?" Trump said. "If I decide to run for office I’ll produce my tax returns. Absolutely. I would love to do that. I did produce a financial statement even though I wasn't even running. I did produce a financial statement and it was shocking to some because it was so much higher than people thought possible."
Fitzpatrick was referencing when Trump said in 2011 that he would release his tax returns if Obama released his birth certificate. (Trump has not released his tax returns.)
"The president should come clean," Trump added about Obama in the 2014 interview. "He should have come clean over the years. If you remember the very famous story where I offered him $5 million if he showed some basic records and he never took me up on it. And that would be for charity. So charities would have benefited and it would have been a great thing."
"But he is a citizen and he produced that long form birth certificate," host Fitzpatrick said.
"Well, a lot of people don't agree with you and a lot of people feel it wasn't a proper certificate," Trump said.