--- title: One in Five Americans Still Think Obama is Foreign-Born description: 29% of Americans say they think the President is a Muslim, including 43% of Republicans canonical: https://time.com/4033161/obama-foreign-born/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-14T12:07:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T10:54:23.326Z article:section: Politics og:title: One in Five Americans Still Think Obama is Foreign-Born og:description: 29% of Americans say they think the President is a Muslim, including 43% of Republicans og:url: https://time.com/4033161/obama-foreign-born/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3240fc465685daae/698863470b72e3a3e86e5c7f/obama-iran-deal.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: Obama - Iran Deal og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: One in Five Americans Still Think Obama is Foreign-Born twitter:description: 29% of Americans say they think the President is a Muslim, including 43% of Republicans twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3240fc465685daae/698863470b72e3a3e86e5c7f/obama-iran-deal.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # One in Five Americans Still Think Obama is Foreign-Born, According to Poll > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Sep 14, 2015 12:07 PM UTC  United States President Barack Obama meets with a small group of veterans and Gold Star Mothers to discuss the Iran Nuclear deal in Washington on Sept. 10, 2015. United States President Barack Obama meets with a small group of veterans and Gold Star Mothers to discuss the Iran Nuclear deal in Washington on Sept. 10, 2015. Olivier Douliery—DPA/AP by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Sep 14, 2015 12:07 PM UTC One in five Americans still have misperceptions about President Barack Obama’s place of birth and even more believe he is not a Christian, according to a new CNN/ORC poll that shows old superstitions are not easily put to bed. Obama, who was born in Hawaii and is a Christian, has been suspected loudly by some of being neither. The latest poll shows that 20% of Americans believe Obama was born outside the United States, with 9% saying there is solid evidence to prove it and 11% saying it is just their suspicion. More Americans believe the president is Muslim, with 29% of Americans saying they think the President is a Muslim, including 43% of Republicans. Donald Trump questioned the president’s birthplace in 2011 when he was considering running for the presidency, pushing for the release of his birth certificate. Obama did release a long-from birth certificate in April 2011, showing he was born at Honolulu’s Kapiolani Hospital on August 4, 1961. Over 60% of Trump’s supporters say Obama was born in the United States, compared with 71% of Republican and Republican-leaning voters. The poll was conducted among 1,012 adults with a margin of error of 3%. \[[CNN](http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/13/politics/barack-obama-religion-christian-misperceptions/index.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4033161/obama-foreign-born/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4033161/obama-foreign-born/"},"headline":"One in Five Americans Still Think Obama is Foreign-Born, According to Poll","datePublished":"2015-09-14T12:07:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:54:23.326Z","description":"29% of Americans say they think the President is a Muslim, including 43% of Republicans","url":"https://time.com/4033161/obama-foreign-born/","keywords":["Barack Obama"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3240fc465685daae/698863470b72e3a3e86e5c7f/obama-iran-deal.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3240fc465685daae/698863470b72e3a3e86e5c7f/obama-iran-deal.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Obama - Iran Deal","caption":"Obama - Iran Deal","creditText":"Olivier Douliery—DPA/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4033161/obama-foreign-born/","name":"One in Five Americans Still Think Obama is Foreign-Born, According to Poll"}}]}] ```