Appearing on Good Morning America, Donald Trump begins his “Birther” campaign against President Barack Obama. This is the start of his never-formally-announced third presidential campaign.
Trump seemed to throw his lot in with the discredited rumors that President Obama wasn’t born in America, saying he’s a “little” skeptical of Obama’s citizenship and that every so-called birther who shares the view shouldn’t be so quickly dismissed as an “idiot.”
“Growing up no one knew him,” Trump told ABC’s “Good Morning America” during an interview aboard his private plane, Trump Force One. “The whole thing is very strange.”
In the wide-ranging interview, Trump said he’s willing to spend up to $600 million on a presidential bid.
“I have much more than that,” he said. “That’s one of the nice things. Part of the beauty of me is that I’m very rich. So if I need $600 million, I can put up $600 million myself. That’s a huge advantage over the other candidates.”
Politico
It’s later discovered that Trump, Michael Cohen, and David Pecker (National Enquirer) were plotting the conspiracy campaign months before, in 2010.
In 2010, at [Michael] Cohen’s urging, the National Enquirer began promoting a potential Trump presidential candidacy, referring readers to a pro-Trump website Cohen helped create. With Cohen’s involvement, the publication began questioning President Barack Obama’s birthplace and American citizenship in print, an effort that Trump promoted for several years, former staffers said.
Associated Press
In April, when Obama releases his birth certificate, Trump takes credit for it.
“Today, I’m very proud of myself because I’ve accomplished something that nobody else has been able to accomplish,” Mr. Trump told reporters who gathered in an airport hangar. “I am really honored, frankly, to have played such a big role in hopefully getting rid of this issue.”
Mr. Trump, the billionaire businessman and television entertainer who is flirting with whether to seek the Republican presidential nomination, was making his first visit to New Hampshire, the site of the first primary of the 2012 campaign. He said he would make his decision known before June.
The New York Times
