Donald Trump, business celebrity and host of reality television show “The Apprentice,” created a buzz on social media outlets that he had a bombshell announcement that would affect the 2012 presidential election. The “big news” came on Wednesday Oct. 24 in the form of a YouTube video where Trump stated, “I have a deal for the president, a deal that I don’t believe he can refuse, and I hope he doesn’t. If Barack Obama opens up and gives his college records and applications and if he gives his passport applications and records, I will give to a charity of his choice … a check immediately for $5 million.” Trump also gave the president a deadline: 5 p.m. Oct. 31, according to a CNN article.I feel that Trump is being ridiculous. He is like a child vying for attention. This “deal” for the president is really bad form on Trump’s part. Trump has long been intent on proving that the president was born in Kenya, not in Hawaii, despite the release of Obama’s birth certificate last year. I feel that it is time for him to give up. Obama is clearly a citizen of the United States because it is a requirement for the presidency that would have been certified back in 2008. At this point in time all Trump is doing is making himself look bad. As for President Obama, I would be severely disappointed if he did release his college records.
The president released his long-form birth certificate from Hawaii last year in order to quell speculations that he was not a U.S. citizen and prove that he is constitutionally eligible to serve as president. He also previously released his certification of live birth, the short-form birth certificate, during the 2008 campaign. Both documents detail that he was born in a Hawaii hospital on Aug. 4, 1961. I understand Obama’s choice to release this documentation and I respect his intent to clear the speculations, but if the president were to concede to Trump there would be nothing to keep other celebrities from making similar demands. The president of the U.S. should not appease or need to appease celebrities or powerful businessmen.
As for Trump, this past May he pushed the birth issue as he questioned the validity of Obama’s long-form birth certificate which was released by the president in 2011. It was at that time that Trump first brought up the matter of Obama’s college transcripts and maintained, in an interview with CNN, that “a lot of people do not think” the live-birth certificate was genuine, even a year after the document was released. However, Trump refused to offer names of experts that agreed with him.
In a statement released in October, Trump claimed responsibility for the release of the president’s certificate, stating, “I am very honored to have gotten him to release his long form birth certificate, or whatever it may be.” He also declared, “President Obama is the least transparent president in the history of this country.”
It seems that Trump is all about being flashy and drawing attention. However, in an interview on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight,” Trump argued that his offer was not a publicity stunt and proceeded to challenge the president further, asking, “If there’s nothing wrong with his applications – if everything’s fine, why wouldn’t he do it to pick up $5 million for a charity?” Trump stated that he would consider it outrageous if the president refused the offer. I, on the other hand, believe that it would be outrageous if Obama did indulge Trump and accept his deal. Yes, $5 million for a charity would be fabulous, but our president should not be forced to respond to the whims of people like Trump. It is going to look bad either way, but for Trump, even donating $50 million to charity will not help his image after Oct. 31 passes.
As it is, Obama is doing well in his response to Trump’s vies for attention. The president was on “The Tonight Show” on Wednesday Oct. 24, the same day of Trump’s announcement. The host Jay Leno questioned Obama on the controversy between him and Trump, to which the president replied, “This all dates back to when we were growing up together in Kenya. We had constant run-ins on the soccer field. He wasn’t very good and resented it. When we finally moved to America, I thought it would be over.” This acknowledgement and dismissal of Trump was well played by the president.
However, every day Trump is on Twitter reminding his followers that he’s still waiting for President Obama to take him up on the $5 million donation in exchange for his records. It is long past time to give up on the deal, and at this point the only thing I am waiting to see is if Trump will make another announcement if the president does not meet the deadline next Wednesday.
Elaina Zintl can be reached at elaina.zintl@spartans.ut.edu
Obama, who really was born in Hawaii, as the officials of both parties in Hawaii and the Index Data file and the birth notices sent to the newspapers of Hawaii by the DOH of Hawaii in 1961 all show, was re-elected President of the United States last night. He won both a majority of the popular vote and a clear majority of the votes of the Electoral College.
Some things that show that Obama was born in Hawaii:
1. Obama’s two official birth certificates, with the state seals on them. (The official physical copy of the long-form birth certificate was handed around in the White House press room, and one reporter said that she had felt the seal and took a photo of the document. http://turningthescale.net?/?p=541)
2. The confirmation of the facts on the two birth certificates (short form and long form)—-that Obama was born in Hawaii—by THREE Republican officials in Hawaii and several Democrats, and by the public Index Data file. The acceptance of the written confirmation of the facts on Obama’s birth certificate by the conservative secretary of state of Arizona.
3. The notices of Obama’s birth in the Hawaii newspapers in 1961 that were sent to the papers “Health Bureau Statistics” section by the DOH of Hawaii—-and only the DOH could send those notices. (Also, the claim that the DOH could have been influenced by lying relatives turns out to be false because whenever there was a claim of a birth outside of a hospital, Hawaii insisted on a witness statement.)
4. The absence of a US travel document for Obama in 1961. Nor has there been an application for such a travel document found.
5. The teacher, who recalls being told of Obama’s birth in Hawaii in Kapiolani Hospital in 1961 and writing home about it (about the birth to a woman named Stanley to her father, also named Stanley).
6. Obama’s Kenyan grandmother said repeatedly in the taped interview that he was BORN IN HAWAII, and she said in another interview (Hartford Courant) that the first that her family in Kenya had heard of Obama’s birth was in a letter FROM HAWAII.
7. Hawaii is thousands of miles from any foreign country, and it was rare for women to travel late in pregnancy in those days. WND has proved with a FOI Act request that Obama’s father remained in Hawaii throughout 1961, which would have meant that she would have had to have made that long, expensive and risky trip without him—and that is hardly likely at all.
I can’t believe anyone devoted time to writing a story about this..
Re: “Woman were not allowed to fly if at term pregnancy. ”
Precisely. If Obama’s mother had wanted to fly to Kenya, she would not have been allowed to do so.
Obama’s Kenyan grandmother NEVER said that she saw him being born in Kenya (and Mumbai is in India, by the way). That was made up by a birther site. Obama’s Kenyan grandmother said repeatedly in the taped interview that Obama was born IN HAWAII. The birther site simply did not print what she said after the question “Whereabouts was he born?” And they have never quoted another interview with Obama’s Kenyan grandmother, done by the Hartford Courant newspaper, in which she said that the first that her family in Kenya had heard of Obama’s birth was IN A LETTER FROM HAWAII.
The above is a sad example of why Ann Coulter, Glen Beck and the National Review all call birthers crazy.
The “born in Kenya” story is the height of the loony side of the birther movement. It is based on forgeries like that of Lucas D. Smith, and falsifications–such as the claim that Obama’s Kenyan grandmother said that he was born in Kenya—when she actually said right on the same tape that he was born IN HAWAII, and she said in another interview that the first that her family in Kenya had heard of Obama’s birth was in a letter FROM HAWAII.
Lucas D. Smith, a convicted felon, claimed that he went to Kenya and got Obama’s birth certificate at a hospital in Mombasa. But Lucas D. Smith has constantly refused to show proof that he, Smith, had ever gone to Kenya. All that he would have to do would be to show a Kenya stamp on a page of a passport, but Lucas D. Smith has refused to do that, constantly, and he has also constantly refused to say why he will not show that proof. (Moreover, his “birth certificate” uses US date formats [month/day/year] and not the day/month/year format used in Kenya.)
Laying aside for a moment the overwhelming proof that Obama was born in Hawaii, the evidence that Obama was NOT born in Kenya is also very strong. There were a grand total of 21 people who came to the USA from Kenya in 1961. Of these only seven were US citizens. And the birther myth has always been that Obama’s parents went there and returned by plane, but only one person came to the USA from Kenya in 1961 by plane and that person was, wait for it, NOT a US citizen. And Obama’s father did not go to Kenya in 1961 either (making it unlikely that his mother did, since travel late in pregnancy was rare, and even more rare without the husband going along). WND has proved with a FOI Act request that Obama senior stayed in Hawaii throughout 1961.
And the Kenyan government investigated the “born in Kenya” story, and found that it was not true.
“Jon Chessoni, a first secretary at the Kenyan Embassy in Washington, can’t understand why his office gets so many baseless questions about whether Barack Obama was born in Kenya.
“It’s madness,” said Chessoni on Monday.“His father, in 1961, would not even have been in Kenya. When this matter first came up, the Kenyan government did its research and confirmed that these are all baseless claims.””
Obama has a Hawaii birth certificate that says that he was born in Hawaii, in Kapiolani Hospital, and the officials of both parties in Hawaii have confirmed that fact. It is also confirmed by the birth announcement in the Hawaii newspapers in 1961, which were sent to the papers only by the DOH of Hawaii.
Obama’s birth announcement appeared in a section of the newspapers called Health Bureau Statistics. As the name indicates, and as the papers and the DOH also say, ONLY the DOH of Hawaii could send birth notices to the Health Bureau Statistics section of the paper. And the DOH only sent out those notices for children that it had issued birth certificates for, and in 1961 the DOH was not allowed to register the births of children who were not born in Hawaii.
Re: “Of course he was born in Kenya, his mom was there prior to his birth…”
The above quotation is a sad example of why Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck and the National Review all call birthers CRAZY.
The “born in Kenya” story is the height of the loony side of the birther movement. It is based on forgeries like that of Lucas D. Smith, and falsifications–such as the claim that Obama’s Kenyan grandmother said that he was born in Kenya—when she actually said right on the same tape that he was born IN HAWAII, and she said in another interview that the first that her family in Kenya had heard of Obama’s birth was in a letter FROM HAWAII.
Lucas D. Smith, a convicted felon, claimed that he went to Kenya and got Obama’s birth certificate at a hospital in Mombasa. But Lucas D. Smith has constantly refused to show proof that he, Smith, had ever gone to Kenya. All that he would have to do would be to show a Kenya stamp on a page of a passport, but Lucas D. Smith has refused to do that, constantly, and he has also constantly refused to say why he will not show that proof. (Moreover, his “birth certificate” uses US date formats [month/day/year] and not the day/month/year format used in Kenya.)
Laying aside for a moment the overwhelming proof that Obama was born in Hawaii, the evidence that Obama was NOT born in Kenya is also very strong. There were a grand total of 21 people who came to the USA from Kenya in 1961. Of these only seven were US citizens. And the birther myth has always been that Obama’s parents went there and returned by plane, but only one person came to the USA from Kenya in 1961 by plane and that person was, wait for it, NOT a US citizen. And Obama’s father did not go to Kenya in 1961 either (making it unlikely that his mother did, since travel late in pregnancy was rare, and even more rare without the husband going along). WND has proved with a FOI Act request that Obama senior stayed in Hawaii throughout 1961.
And the Kenyan government investigated the “born in Kenya” story, and found that it was not true.
“Jon Chessoni, a first secretary at the Kenyan Embassy in Washington, can’t understand why his office gets so many baseless questions about whether Barack Obama was born in Kenya.
“It’s madness,” said Chessoni on Monday.“His father, in 1961, would not even have been in Kenya. When this matter first came up, the Kenyan government did its research and confirmed that these are all baseless claims.””
http://washingtonindependent.com/53654/forged …
Obama has a Hawaii birth certificate that says that he was born in Hawaii, in Kapiolani Hospital, and the officials of BOTH parties in Hawaii have confirmed that fact. It is also confirmed by the birth announcement in the Hawaii newspapers in 1961, which were sent to the papers only by the DOH of Hawaii.
Obama’s birth announcement appeared in a section of the newspapers called Health Bureau Statistics. As the name indicates, and as the papers and the DOH also say, ONLY the DOH of Hawaii could send birth notices to the Health Bureau Statistics section of the paper. And the DOH only sent out those notices for children that it had issued birth certificates for, and in 1961 the DOH was not allowed to register the births of children who were not born in Hawaii.
Oh, and there is this:
http://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2011/04/kapiol …
Is that all? NO there is more.
Birthers allege that the Kenyan government has hidden all documents that prove that Obama’s mother went to Kenya. Well, that is possible, but not likely—such things tend to leak. But what about the US government? Did it hide its records too?
That is because, obviously, if a child were born in Kenya she or he would need a US travel document to get to the USA. We simply do not allow a child to be carried into the USA without some form of official document. (Except some are smuggled across the Mexican and Canadian borders, but Kenya does not have a land border with the USA.) And a US travel document, such as having Obama added to his mother’s US passport would have required an application for that document in the US consulate in Nairobi Kenya.
That application would have been filed in multiple files, and there would have been communication about it with Washington, so it would be difficult to be lost or scrapped. And the Bush Administration was in charge of the US State Department for eight years until early 2009, so they could have found it, and if they did they would surely have shown it, and they didn’t.
So, for the “born in Kenya” story to be true, both Kenya and the Bush Administration must be part of a plot. Hawaii too, of course, and that would include the former Republican governor of Hawaii, now running for the US Senate. And the birth notices in the Hawaii newspapers that were placed by the DOH in the Hawaii newspapers (and only the DOH could put notices into the Health Bureau Statistics section of the papers) in 1961 would have to be fraudulent too.
Kenya is about ten thousand miles from Hawaii, and the idea that Obama’s parents had that kind of money or would spend it on a trip while Obama’s mother was late in pregnancy (which was very rare in those days) and take the risk of stillbirth and Yellow Fever (which was endemic in Kenya, and a Yellow Fever shot is bad during pregnancy) is nutty in the extreme.
The bottom line: There is no proof that Obama’s mother went to Kenya and it is highly unlikely that she did. The Kenyan government and Obama’s relatives both say that HE WAS NOT BORN IN KENYA. If he were born in Kenya there would have to be US government documents saying that his family applied for a passport or a visa, and there isn’t any. There is no INS check in for Obama or his mother (which would normally have taken place in New York, since there were no direct flights, and those files are not missing), and the birth certificate and the confirmation of the officials of both parties and the Index Data and the birth notices in the Hawaii newspapers all show that he was born in Hawaii.
Hawaii was only in its second year as a US State in 1961, and a native Hawaiian could easily state a baby was born at the local home to obtain a US birth certificate. In fact, Barack stated publicly his 50th birthday was in July, but the birth certificate says August. Plenty of time to return to Hawaii after the birth in Kenya. For additional evidence: Breitbart News has obtained a promotional booklet produced in 1991 by Barack Obama’s then-literary agency, Acton & Dystel, which touts Obama as “born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.” Why would Obama approve his bio in this document (thousands of dollars to produce) if he wasn’t born in Kenya?
The one problem I have is that every forensic document expert that has examined the “Certificate of Live Birth” posted on the White House web site has labeled it a forgery and a bad one at that.
Obama’s mother was not in Kenya before he was born. In fact, she was NEVER in Kenya.
The notion of Obama’s mother, late in pregnancy, traveling alone (WND has shown that Obama senior was in Hawaii on August 4, 1961) from Hawaii where there are good hospitals, to Kenya, where there was Yellow Fever and bad hospitals, and doing so without any INS record of her leaving the USA or any record of her arriving in Kenya—is absurd. And the fact that there is a birth certificate showing that she gave birth in Kapiolani Hospital in Honolulu makes it even more absurd.
Oh, and there were a total of 63 people who went to Kenya from the USA in 1961 and only 21 people who came from Kenya to the USA in 1961. Yet birthers want us to believe that Obama and his mother were two of the 21—-despite the enormous cost and risk of such a trip. And despite the fact that there is neither US documents showing that Obama’s mother traveled outside of the USA or Kenyan documents showing that she arrived in Kenya AND a birth certificate showing that Obama was born in Hawaii.
One of the many facts that birther sites do not report:
http://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2011/04/kapiolani-confirms/
The above is another example of why Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck and the National Review all call birthers CRAZY.
(1) the Kenyan government has said that it checked out that allegation that Obama was born in Kenya and found that it was FALSE; (2) if a child actually were born in Kenya, she or he would need a US travel document, such as being entered on the mother’s USA passport to get to the USA (we do not allow children to be carried into the country)—and yet no such document has been found; (3)only 21 people total came to the USA from Kenya in 1961, and of them only one came by plane (which has always been the birther story about that trip), so the chances of it happening were always pretty low; (4) WND has proved with a FOI Act request that Obama senior stayed in Hawaii throughout 1961—-so if Obama’s mother had taken that trip, she would have had to have traveled ALONE—-and that is hardly likely for such an expensive and risky trip (stillbirth and Yellow Fever in Kenya); (5) Obama has a birth certificate showing that he was born in Kapiolani Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii, and the facts on it have been repeatedly confirmed by the officials of both parties in Hawaii, and by the Index Data file and by the birth notices sent to the newspapers by the DOH of Hawaii in 1961 (and only the DOH could send notices to that section of the paper, and the DOH only sent notices for children that it had issued birth certificates to, and it was only allowed to issue birth certificates to children born in Hawaii in 1961.)
Of course he was born in Kenya, his mom was there prior to his birth and if you understood the times. Woman were not allowed to fly if at term pregnancy. So she delivered and quickly went home to her parents in Hawaii. Then registered his birth in Hawaii. Hawaii was a new state and it was easy to have children at home like the locals then confirm the birth with the local government. The Grandmother said she saw him born in mumbai,Kenya