{"slug":"trump-racial-birther-campaign-obama","title":"The Birther Campaign: Trump's Racist Attack on Obama's Legitimacy","date":"2011-03-23","lastUpdated":"2016-09-16","description":"From 2011 through 2016, Donald Trump was the most prominent national promoter of the 'birther' conspiracy theory — the demonstrably false claim that Barack Obama, the first Black president, had not been born in the United States and was therefore ineligible for the presidency. The campaign had no factual basis and was widely documented as serving primarily to delegitimize the first Black president through racial dog-whistling. Trump never apologized; he launched his presidential campaign partly on birther celebrity.","summary":"Trump spent five years as the most high-profile national birther — making repeated media appearances questioning Obama's birth certificate, demanding documents, and insisting Hawaii was hiding something. Obama released his long-form birth certificate in April 2011 specifically in response to Trump's media campaign. Trump continued the campaign for years afterward. In September 2016, he held a press conference in which he acknowledged Obama was born in the United States — and falsely blamed Hillary Clinton for starting the theory.","category":"civil-rights","severity":"major","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/17/us/politics/donald-trump-obama-birther.html","title":"Trump Admits Obama Was Born in U.S., but Falsely Blames Clinton","publisher":"The New York Times"},{"url":"https://www.factcheck.org/2016/09/trump-admits-birther-lie-falsely-blames-clinton/","title":"Trump Admits Birther Lie; Falsely Blames Clinton","publisher":"FactCheck.org"},{"url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2016/live-updates/general-election/real-time-fact-checking-and-analysis-of-the-first-presidential-debate/fact-check-trump-clinton-and-the-birther-issue/","title":"Fact-check: Trump, Clinton, and the birther issue","publisher":"The Washington Post"},{"url":"https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/trump-and-the-birther-lie/500489/","title":"Trump's Birther Campaign and What It Meant for America","publisher":"The Atlantic"},{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/us/politics/donald-trump-birther-movement.html","title":"Trump's Birther Legacy","publisher":"The New York Times"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["birther","Obama","racism","pre-presidency","civil-rights","conspiracy-theory"],"relatedEntries":[],"timeline":[{"date":"2011-03-23","title":"Trump launches birther media campaign","summary":"Trump appears on ABC's The View and states he has serious doubts about Obama's birth certificate. It is the beginning of a years-long media campaign in which Trump calls for Obama to release his birth certificate and repeatedly suggests it doesn't exist or is fraudulent."},{"date":"2011-04-07","title":"Trump claims to have sent investigators to Hawaii","summary":"Trump claims on NBC he has sent investigators to Hawaii to look into Obama's birth and that 'they cannot believe what they're finding.' No investigators are publicly identified and no findings are ever published."},{"date":"2011-04-27","title":"Obama releases long-form birth certificate","summary":"Obama releases his long-form birth certificate — a step no previous president had taken and which Obama later described as humiliating — specifically to end the birther controversy Trump had amplified. Trump claims vindication for forcing the release."},{"date":"2011-05-01","title":"Trump attends White House Correspondents Dinner","summary":"Trump attends the Correspondents Dinner, where Obama and comedian Seth Meyers mock him at length over his birther campaign. Obama notes pointedly that he can now get back to the 'serious work' of governing; Trump's demeanor throughout the roast is noted as rigid and unsmiling."},{"date":"2012-01-01","title":"Trump continues questioning birth certificate","summary":"Despite the release of the long-form certificate, Trump continues making statements questioning its authenticity and suggesting Obama is hiding something. The campaign continues through Obama's reelection."},{"date":"2016-09-16","title":"Trump issues brief acknowledgment; falsely blames Clinton","summary":"At a press conference timed around the opening of his new Washington hotel, Trump states: 'President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period.' He then falsely says Hillary Clinton started the birther controversy and credits himself with 'finishing it.' News organizations immediately document the false Clinton attribution."}],"location":{"name":"United States (national media campaign)","lat":38.9072,"lng":-77.0369},"custom":{"era":"pre-presidency","posture":"reported","warCrimeClassification":"enabling","internationalLaw":[{"statute":"International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination","article":"Article 4","provision":"States shall condemn propaganda that promotes racial inferiority or hatred; public officials who spread racial conspiracy theories violate ICERD norms even as private citizens if seeking public office"}],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"Barack Obama; the democratic principle that a duly-elected president's legitimacy cannot be undermined through racial conspiracy theories; Black Americans whose political participation was attacked through the delegitimization of the first Black president","structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"Real estate developer; television host; presidential aspirant","institution":"Trump Organization / The Apprentice"}],"updateLog":[{"date":"2016-09-16","summary":"Updated with Trump's September 2016 acknowledgment and false Clinton attribution."}]}}