April 25, 2011: Trump: ‘Somebody’ Told Him Obama’s Birth Certificate Is ‘Missing’

Billionaire television host Donald Trump says that “somebody” informed him that President Obama’s birth certificate is “missing.” During his April 7 interview on NBC’s Today Show, Trump told interviewer Meredith Vieira that he had sent a team of researchers to Hawaii to investigate President Obama’s birth status (see April 7, 2011 and April 7, 2011). “[T]hey cannot believe what they are finding,” he told her. In later interviews, Trump was coy about revealing what, if anything, his investigators have found, telling one reporter, “I’ll let you know that at a future date” and another, “[T]hat’s none of your business.” In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Cooper presses Trump to divulge what his investigators have actually unearthed. Trump claims that he has learned Obama’s birth certificate is “not there and it doesn’t exist.” He says: “Well, I’ve been told very recently, Anderson, that the birth certificate is missing. I’ve been told that it’s not there and it doesn’t exist. And if that’s the case, that’s a big problem.” Cooper asks, “Who told you that?” and Trump answers, “I just heard that two days ago from somebody.” Cooper asks, “From your investigators?” and Trump replies: “I don’t want to say who. But I’ve been told that the birth certificate is not there, it’s missing.” Cooper presses Trump, asking, “Can you name even one person who your investigators have talked to?” Trump refuses, saying: “I don’t want to do that right now. It’s not appropriate right now.” CNN researchers working for Cooper’s broadcast have contacted Dr. Chiyome Fukino, the former Hawaii Department of Health director and a Republican, who has repeatedly validated the authenticity of Obama’s original birth certificate (see October 30, 2008, July 28, 2009, and April 11, 2011). She calls Obama’s certificate “absolutely authentic,” and debunks Trump’s suggestion that Obama wants to keep the certificate hidden to cloak his status as a Muslim, because, Fukino says, no birth certificate from that time mentions faith. CNN finds three people who remember Obama as an infant in Honolulu, including Governor Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), Obama’s mother’s college advisor, and another mother who gave birth at the same time Obama was born. The other mother says she remembers Obama in the hospital because “in those days, there were hardly any other black babies.” Reportedly, the exchange between Trump and Cooper becomes heated at times. [New York Magazine, 4/7/2011; Fox Nation, 4/19/2011; Think Progress, 4/26/2011; CNN, 4/26/2011]