Trump: 'Obama was born in the United States, period'

WASHINGTON — Five years after the White House released President Barack Obama's birth certificate amid conspiracy theories that claimed he was born in Kenya and ineligible for office, Donald Trump said Friday that he believes the president.

"President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period," Trump said.

Trump, an outspoken proponent of the so-called "birther" movement, addressed the issue with a short statement at his recently opened Trump International Hotel in Washington.

He reiterated claims made by a campaign spokesman Thursday that his rival for the White House, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, was the first to claim Obama was not born in the United States during her unsuccessful bid for the presidential nomination in 2008.

"(She) started the birther controversy," Trump said. "I finished it. You know what I mean."

There is no evidence that Clinton supported or perpetuated the birther movement, according to FactCheck.org.

Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961.

Speaking with reporters Friday, Obama said he was shocked that the issue of his birthplace has come up considering "we have so many other things to do."

"I'm not that shocked, actually," he continued. "I was pretty confident about where I was born. I think most other people were as well.

Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller said in a statement Thursday that Trump "believes that President Obama was born in the United States."

"In 2011, Mr. Trump was finally able to bring this ugly incident to its conclusion by successfully compelling President Obama to release his birth certificate," Miller said.

"Mr. Trump did a great service to the president and the country by bringing closure to the issue that Hillary Clinton and her team first raised. Inarguably, Donald J. Trump is a closer."

Trump's reversal comes as he courts minority voters and just two days after the business mogel told The Washington Post that he was unwilling to admit Obama was born in the U.S.

"I'll answer that question at the right time," Trump said. "I just don't want to answer it yet."

Forty-one percent of registered Republicans said as recently as early July that they believe Obama was born outside the United States, according to an NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll. Fewer than two in 10 Democrats agreed.

Cox Media Group