Donald Trump isn’t just a birther, he’s the birther—the Grand High Water Buffalo of a movement that aims to dispute and demean every fact concerning the nation’s first black president. Trump started conspiracy theories, he fueled conspiracy theories, he funded conspiracy theories, and kept the hate fires burning with an infusion of both money and attention.
I wonder if @BarackObama ever applied to Occidental, Columbia or Harvard as a foreign student. When can we see his applications? What do they say about his place of birth.
In his own words, @BarackObama "was born in Kenya, and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii." This statement was made, in writing, in the 1990's. Why does the press protect him? Is this another Watergate?
Trump’s version of Obama wasn’t just born in Kenya: he lived under the name Barry Soweto until he went to college where he applied as a foreign student, was a terrible student who didn’t deserve to get into Columbia or Harvard, and, of course, faked his birth certificate. Donald Trump demanded over and over that Obama release his birth certificate, his passport, and the college records that Barack Obama had somehow “sealed” long before he became president.
What can be laughed off? Donald Trump’s taxes. Donald Trump’s own college transcripts. Donald Trump’s overseas business arrangements. So why, other than spotting a great opportunity to sucker the media into giving his new hotel free publicity, did the king of birthers decide to make a 12-second turnaround? Because it was convenient.
In case anyone had doubts, Donald Trump on Wednesday clarified that the only reason he recently disavowed birtherism was that he was tired of being asked about it.
Asked what inspired the Republican nominee to announce on Friday that he now believed President Barack Obama was born in the U.S., Trump was characteristically frank.
"Well, I just wanted to get on with, you know, we want to get on with the campaign," he said in an interview with Toledo ABC affiliate WSYX.
Not asking Donald Trump about birtherism would be handy, because birtherism is racism. There’s nothing more to it.
Trump’s particular obsession with Obama can be boiled down to a paragraph:
"I have friends who have smart sons with great marks, great boards, great everything and they can't get into Harvard," Trump said. "We don't know a thing about this guy. There are a lot of questions that are unanswered about our president."
In other words, Trump knows rich white kids who couldn’t get into Harvard, but somehow this poor black kid made it. We can’t have that.
Barack Obama is exactly what Trump hates—someone who genuinely rose because of their own personal dedication and intelligence. Someone who never traded in their decency for a momentary success. Someone who overcame obstacles in his life with grace and dignity.
Trump is all too aware that every win he’s ever had in his life is due to what he was given, not what he earned. He can bluster about how smart he is, and how much he understands, but he knows it’s not true. He knows he has traded in deception, exaggeration, and ugliness all his life.
He can’t stand to admit that Obama’s life story is true, because it reveals that Donald Trump is a lie.
Trump’s answer, in many ways, gave his skeptics fuel: that he finally admitted Mr. Obama was born in this country because it was politically expedient, perhaps even necessary, because the issue was getting in the way of his message. He did not express regret. He did not apologize. He did not even say that he was wrong. He just said he wanted to move on.
Move on to stop-and-frisk. Move on to racial profiling. Move on to making sure that no black kid ever shows him up again.
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