--- ---  # Read Donald Trump's Speech Finally Admitting President Obama Was Born in the U.S.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Sep 16, 2016 8:13 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends a campaign event with veterans at the Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Ave., NW, on Sept. 16, 2016. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends a campaign event with veterans at the Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Ave., NW, on Sept. 16, 2016.Tom Williams—CQ-Roll Call,Inc./Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Sep 16, 2016 8:13 PM UTC Donald Trump on Friday [briefly addressed the “birther” conspiracy](http://time.com/4496913/donald-trump-barack-obama-birther/?xid=homepage)—of which he was long one of the most vocal proponents—and acknowledged that President Obama was born in the United States. At a media event billed as an announcement about his stance on Obama’s birthplace, Trump spent most of the time discussing his new Washington, D.C., hotel and introducing members of the military who are supporting his presidential campaign. Trump only mentioned the birther issue in about 40 words at the end of his speech, falsely saying that Hillary Clinton started the [birther movement](http://time.com/4496792/birther-rumor-started/?xid=homepage) in 2008 and that he was the one to end it. There is [no evidence](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/sep/23/donald-trump/hillary-clinton-obama-birther-fact-check/) that Clinton or her campaign ever pushed the birther argument, and Trump continued to raise questions about Obama’s birth long after Obama’s full birth certificate was released. Here are Trump’s full remarks: --- > “” --- Donald Trump Admits Obama Was Born in the U.S.: Transcript ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4497626/donald-trump-birther-address-transcript/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4497626/donald-trump-birther-address-transcript/"},"headline":"Read Donald Trump's Speech Finally Admitting President Obama Was Born in the U.S.","datePublished":"2016-09-16T20:13:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:39:50.679Z","description":"Read Donald Trump's full remarks from a Friday event at which he briefly addressed the \"birther\" conspiracy theory","url":"https://time.com/4497626/donald-trump-birther-address-transcript/","keywords":["Donald Trump","2016 Election topic","Barack Obama"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77a1534b3f32bcd0/6988a67c524fc0cb07df9832/trump-birther-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt77a1534b3f32bcd0/6988a67c524fc0cb07df9832/trump-birther-transcript.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Trump International Hotel Event","caption":"Trump International Hotel Event","creditText":"Tom Williams—CQ-Roll Call,Inc./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/4497626/donald-trump-birther-address-transcript/","name":"Read Donald Trump's Speech Finally Admitting President Obama Was Born in the U.S."}}]}] ```