--- title: Donald Trump Admits President Obama Was Born in the U.S. description: Donald Trump on Friday addressed the so-called "birther" theory in about 40 words after an unrelated military tribute canonical: https://time.com/4496913/donald-trump-barack-obama-birther/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-16T16:09:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T06:47:09.721Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Finally Admits President Obama Was Born in the U.S. og:description: He also falsely argued that Hillary Clinton started the birther movement og:url: https://time.com/4496913/donald-trump-barack-obama-birther/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d96bc3bc8023284/6988a66d524fc05ba0df9817/donald-trump-birther-speech.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2124 og:image:height: 1195 og:image:alt: GOP Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Campaigns In Laconia, New Hampshire og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Finally Admits President Obama Was Born in the U.S. twitter:description: He also falsely argued that Hillary Clinton started the birther movement twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6d96bc3bc8023284/6988a66d524fc05ba0df9817/donald-trump-birther-speech.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Finally Admits President Obama Was Born in the United States > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### 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. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=a0f8b240-192b-4d6d-b0e4-c1bc87cb40fa&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-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 [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Sep 16, 2016 4:09 PM UTC  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Sep 16, 2016 4:09 PM UTC Donald Trump on Friday addressed the [so-called “birther” theory](http://time.com/4496463/trump-obama-born-birther-hawaii-us/) in about 40 words after spending a half hour on an unrelated military tribute and promotion of [his new upscale hotel](http://time.com/4496804/donald-trump-post-office-hotel/). “President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period,” Trump said, finally abandoning the [long-debunked](https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/27/president-obamas-long-form-birth-certificate) conspiracy theory that Obama was not born in the United States. “Now we all want to get back to making America strong and great again.” The remarks came at the tail-end of a media event that his campaign had ginned up interest in through interviews and press statements previewing a turnaround. The event, carried live on cable television networks, unexpectedly turned out to mostly feature the nominee discussing his new Trump International Hotel before ceding the stage to a group of veterans who have endorsed him, then returning for the brief statement. Trump had long been one of the most [vocal proponents](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/232572505238433794) of the birther movement in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election and even after Obama released his [long-form certificate of live birth](https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/27/president-obamas-long-form-birth-certificate) in April of 2011, including statements to reporters that he didn’t know the president’s birthplace [as late as July of 2015](http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-primaries/247473-trump-i-dont-know-if-obama-was-born-in-us). In his brief remarks on Friday, Trump also falsely accused Hillary Clinton and her 2008 presidential campaign of originally raising doubts about Obama’s birthplace, and he falsely asserted that he was the one to put an end to the controversy. “Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it,” he said. As [PolitiFact has noted](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/sep/23/donald-trump/hillary-clinton-obama-birther-fact-check/), there is no evidence that Clinton or anyone in her campaign ever supported the birther argument. Clinton has also denied the claim and [has repeatedly criticized Trump](http://time.com/4442080/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-birther/) on the issue. In a statement on Thursday, Trump’s senior communications adviser Jason Miller praised him for doing “a great service to the President and the country” by getting Obama to release his [long-form birth certificate](https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/27/president-obamas-long-form-birth-certificate). But Trump continued to raise questions about Obama’s birthplace long after the birth certificate was released. Obama, meanwhile, asked that the presidential campaign move on to more serious issues. “I was pretty confident about where I was born,” Obama told reporters at the White House on Friday morning, when asked about Trump’s upcoming remarks. “I think most people were as well, and my hope would be that the presidential election reflects more serious issues than that.” ## 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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