Donald Trump believes that President Obama was born in the United States despite the candidate having repeatedly raised questions about his birthplace, a top aide said Friday.
“So he believes President Obama was born here,” Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said on CNN’s “New Day,” adding, “He was born in Hawaii.”
{mosads}”But the point is, what kind of president has he been? So he is born in the United States, there’s no question to me he was born in the United States, but he has not been a particularly successful president, and that’s what this campaign is about,” she added.
Asked why the Republican presidential nominee himself doesn’t say that Obama was born in the U.S., Conway said, “You have to ask him.”
The top aide’s comments echo those from Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani. The former New York City mayor said Thursday that Trump no longer questions Obama’s citizenship.
“Donald Trump believes now that he was born in the United States,” Giuliani told MSNBC.
Trump was a vocal proponent of what’s called the birther movement, which questions whether Obama was born in the U.S. and thus eligible to be president. The White House ultimately released Obama’s long form birth certificate in 2011.
Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, said this week that he personally believes Obama was born in Hawaii.
The issue reemerged after Trump on Monday declined to say whether he believes Obama was born in the U.S., telling reporters, “I don’t talk about it.”