--- title: Donald Trump Aides Say He's Dropped Obama Birther Theory description: Prominent people close to Donald Trump have said in recent days that he believes President Barack Obama was born in the United States. canonical: https://time.com/4485491/donald-trump-surrogates-barack-obama-birther/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-09T15:53:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T00:30:10.325Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Aides Say He's Dropped Obama Birther Theory og:description: Prominent people close to Donald Trump have said in recent days that he believes President Barack Obama was born in the United States. og:url: https://time.com/4485491/donald-trump-surrogates-barack-obama-birther/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc62c9b05b4e80955/6988a549fb4eac95e988f06f/donald-trump-iraq-war.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: GOP Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Campaigns In Philadelphia og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Aides Say He's Dropped Obama Birther Theory twitter:description: Prominent people close to Donald Trump have said in recent days that he believes President Barack Obama was born in the United States. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc62c9b05b4e80955/6988a549fb4eac95e988f06f/donald-trump-iraq-war.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump Surrogates Say He's Dropped Obama Birther Theory > 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 [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Sep 9, 2016 3:53 PM UTC  Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump delivers a speech at The Union League of Philadelphia on Sept. 7, 2016 in Philadelphia, Penn. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump delivers a speech at The Union League of Philadelphia on Sept. 7, 2016 in Philadelphia, Penn.Mark Makela/Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Sep 9, 2016 3:53 PM UTC Prominent people close to Donald Trump have said in recent days that he believes President Barack Obama was born in the United States, reversing his [fervent promotion of the birther movement in 2011](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/us/politics/donald-trump-birther-obama.html?%5Fr=0). “Donald Trump believes now that (Obama) was born in the United States,” former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Thursday on MSNBC. “I believe it. He believes it. We all believe it. It took a long time to get out.” The same day, Trump’s vice presidential nominee [Mike Pence said](http://time.com/4482683/mike-pence-trump-obama-birther/?iid=sr-link1), “I believe Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, I accept his birthplace.” Friday morning, Trump’s campaign manager [Kellyanne Conway](http://time.com/4462283/donald-trump-kellyanne-conway-campaign-manager/?iid=sr-link1) echoed Giuliani, saying on CNN, “He believes President Obama was born here… The point is what kind of President has he been… He has not been a particularly successful President, that is what this campaign is about.” Trump himself, however, has not given a straight answer on the issue. Asked about it by reporters earlier this week, Trump said, “I don’t talk about it because if I talk about that, your whole thing will be about that.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4485491/donald-trump-surrogates-barack-obama-birther/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4485491/donald-trump-surrogates-barack-obama-birther/"},"headline":"Trump Surrogates Say He's Dropped Obama Birther Theory","datePublished":"2016-09-09T15:53:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:30:10.325Z","description":"Donald Trump himself, however, has not given a straight answer on the issue","url":"https://time.com/4485491/donald-trump-surrogates-barack-obama-birther/","keywords":["Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc62c9b05b4e80955/6988a549fb4eac95e988f06f/donald-trump-iraq-war.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc62c9b05b4e80955/6988a549fb4eac95e988f06f/donald-trump-iraq-war.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GOP Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Campaigns In Philadelphia","caption":"GOP Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Campaigns In Philadelphia","creditText":"Mark Makela/Getty Images","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":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4485491/donald-trump-surrogates-barack-obama-birther/","name":"Trump Surrogates Say He's Dropped Obama Birther Theory"}}]}] ```