--- title: Barack Obama's Birth Certificate: How the Rumors Started description: Did Hillary Clinton spread the rumor that President Obama was not born in the U.S.? No, she did not. canonical: https://time.com/4496792/birther-rumor-started/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-16T17:02:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T06:47:11.528Z article:section: History og:title: This Is How the Whole Birther Thing Actually Started og:description: Did Hillary Clinton spread the rumor? No, she did not. og:url: https://time.com/4496792/birther-rumor-started/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1f5bad11fed6036b/6988a6685f570fbcebb228d0/trump2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: GOP Presidential og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is How the Whole Birther Thing Actually Started twitter:description: Did Hillary Clinton spread the rumor? No, she did not. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1f5bad11fed6036b/6988a6685f570fbcebb228d0/trump2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is How the Whole Birther Thing Actually Started > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=c718849c-9f6e-4fdd-90ae-97869e8e2303&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=c718849c-9f6e-4fdd-90ae-97869e8e2303&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: A History of Trump as a "Birther" [Watch (HLS stream): A History of Trump as a "Birther"](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Fg2XFQPB.m3u8) (2:48)  _Published 2016-09-16. Donald Trump addressed the so-called "birther" theory, finally abandoning the long-debunked conspiracy theory that Obama was not born in the United States. "President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period," Trump said_  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 16, 2016 5:02 PM UTC  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Sep 16, 2016 5:02 PM UTC On Friday, an old conspiracy theory about President Obama got new legs: as Obama [reiterated](http://time.com/4497103/president-obama-im-pretty-confident-about-where-i-was-born/) that he was “pretty confident about where \[he\] was born,” Donald Trump—who long [questioned](https://twitter.com/CarrieNBCNews/status/776807126832390144) the President’s place of birth—made a [statement](http://time.com/4496913/donald-trump-barack-obama-birther/) walking back that position. “President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period,” Trump said. But, Thursday night, his campaign also issued a [statement](http://time.com/4496463/trump-obama-born-birther-hawaii-us/?xid=homepage) tracing the rumor to his opponent, Hillary Clinton. As [PolitiFact](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/sep/23/donald-trump/hillary-clinton-obama-birther-fact-check/) and [Fact-check.org](http://www.factcheck.org/2015/07/was-hillary-clinton-the-original-birther/) both explain, there is absolutely no evidence that Clinton or her campaign were the source of the idea, though it did spread among some of her supporters during the 2008 primary contest between Clinton and Obama—which would only make sense, in terms of the timing of someone questioning whether someone were qualified for the presidency. And as for Clinton herself, she [said](http://time.com/4496952/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-birtherism/) on Friday that Trump’s campaign for the White House was “founded” on the “outrageous lie” that Obama’s place of birth was ever in question, and [called out ](https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/776621762545156096?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc^tfw)the racism of the rumor. [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) So where did the idea actually come from? There’s no definite answer to that question, as the 2008 iteration of the idea was first circulated, according to [a Politico history](http://www.politico.com/story/2011/04/birtherism-where-it-all-began-053563?paginate=false) of the theory, by anonymous email. But, as the primary season came to an end, it got a publicity boost from an ironic source: the attempt by the campaign to quash rumors led some people who might have previously ignored them to wonder what was going on. In 2008, TIME [explained](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1813978,00.html) how that happened: --- > “” --- Even after Obama won the election, the idea did not go away. Years later, in 2011, Donald Trump, then toying with a 2012 run for the White House, was[ largely responsible ](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2065235,00.html)for bringing it back into the news. But the cached version of that original 2008 Obama campaign response, the fact-check website fightthesmears.com, can [still](https://web.archive.org/web/20080613044110/http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fightthesmearshome/) be found online. “Senator Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961, after it became a state on August 21st, 1959,” the website states. And, of course, it links to the documents that prove so—not that anyone should need to see them anymore. ## Transcript How not to mention her in the same breath. But Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it. I finished it. You know what I mean. There's a real question about The birth certificate. Why doesn't he show his birth certificate? Why can't he produce a birth certificate. Let him show the birth certificate. Why are there no hospital records, why doesn't he issue his birth certificate? He did, he put it on a web site. He produced that long form birth cert. Well, a lot of people don't agree with you. And a lot of people feel it wasn't a proper certificate. And by the way there's a huge difference between a Birth Certificate and a Certificate of Birth. The Certificate of Live Birth meets the standard in the State Department for anyone's citizenship . >> George, George, they've co- opted you. Who's they? It's not, obviously, Obama and his minions. He may have one but there's something on that birth, maybe religion, maybe it says he's a Muslim, I don't know. You refuse to accept that the President was born in the United States. I hope he was. Because if he was then that's the greatest scam in history, not political history, in history. But they knew that the birth is just unbelievable to a point. Well, people are afraid to talk about this subject. That's the biggest pile of dog mess I've heard in ages. [ CROSSTALK ] I mean, any white presidents asked to be shown the birth certificate. When they become the United States of America, you know that he's American. [ CROSSTALK ] [ APPLAUSE ] A few weeks ago, I felt Like probably he was born in the country, today it's possibly. I'm telling you it's changed. We're gonna see what happens when. You could end this right now if you wanted to. I am embracing the issue and I'm proud of the issue. George, next question George. But just in case, there are any lingering questions. Tonight, I'm prepared to go a step further. [ LAUGH ] Tonight, for the first time, I'm releasing my official birth video. [ LAUGH ] [ MUSIC ] President Barack Obama [ MUSIC ] Was born in the United States, period. 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