Trumped: Billionaire Donald's birth proof challenge to Obama backfires... as he faces claims over HIS own birth certificate
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:48 PM on 29th March 2011
He is the latest high-profile citizen to join the birthers – the legion of Americans demanding President Barack Obama prove he was born on U.S. soil.
But now billionaire Donald Trump faces the same claims about his origins after the authenticity of his hastily-produced birth certificate was questioned.Mr Trump yesterday released the document from New York’s Jamaica Hospital stating he was born there on June 14, 1946 to parents Mr and Mrs Fred C. Trump.
Ruffled: Donald Trump, famed for his billions and bouffant hairdo, produced a birth certificate only for New York officials to say it wasn't an official one
Evidence: Mr Trump produced this document showing he was born on June 14, 1946. But it is a hospital certificate of birth, rather than an official birth certificate
Afterwards, the 65-year-old property tycoon and Apprentice host triumphantly said: ‘It took me one hour to get my birth certificate.
‘It’s inconceivable that, after four years of questioning, the president still hasn’t produced his birth certificate.
Foreign connection: Mr Trump with his Scottish mother Mary MacLeod
I’m just asking President Obama to show the public his birth certificate. Why’s he making an issue out of this?’
It has been claimed that Mr Obama was born on foreign soil - in Indonesia or even Kenya – and so should not have been able to run for President.
Mr Trump released his birth certificate to conservative website Newsmax after calling for Mr Obama to release his last week on The View, and again on Fox and Friends yesterday.
But Mr Trump was soon trumped when eagle-eyed New Yorkers noted something missing on the document and complained to current-affairs blog Politico.
City officials told the website that an actual birth certificate, which is issued by the Department of Health, would have the agency's seal and also a signature of the city registrar - neither of which the Trump document has.
A spokesman said the Health Department is the ‘sole issuing authority’ of official birth certificates in New York.
Politico reports 'city officials sad it's not an official document.'
Instead of a birth certificate, it is a certificate of birth, a piece of paper the hospital gives to the family to say their child has been born.
Those documents are usually signed by the hospital administrator and the attending doctor.
Politico notes that Trump's mother, Mary MacLeod, was born in Scotland.
The setback, which may have ruffled Mr Trumps famous bouffant-like hair, means that if he decides to run for president in this year's Republican primaries he could face the same scrutiny from Congress as Mr Obama.
In an interview with Fox News, Mr Trump said he didn't consider himself a birther - a group which believes Mr Obama was not born in the U.S. and is demanding to see his birth certificate. Instead he said he 'just wanted to know the truth'.
Support: Some of Mr Trump's backers at New York's Saint Patrick's Day parade. But he may face calls to prove he really was born in the U.S. before he can run
He told Greta Van Susteran: 'I want to see his birth certificate. He doesn't have it. He spent millions of dollars on lawyers trying to get out of the issue.
'They give what's called a certificate of live birth which doesn't even have a signature on it, and anybody can get a certificate of live birth. It's nothing to do with a birth certificate.'
The 'certificate of live birth' refers to a document produced by Mr Obama during his presidential campaign which shows the president's birth date, city and name, along with his parents' names and races.
It was issued on August 8, 1961, four days after his birth. But birthers claim it lacks authenticity because it isn't signed, and allege anyone could receive a 'certification of birth' even if they weren't born in the U.S.
Mr Trump also accused the Hawaii governor, Neil Abercrombie, of lying when he said he remembered Mr Obama being born.
He said: 'I'll bet he didn't even know the parents 50 years ago. What he's doing is taking a bullet for the party.'
Place of birth: A document produced by Mr Trump says he was born at Jamaica Hospital in Queens, New York, on June 14, 1946
And he dismissed two adverts taken out in two Honolulu newspapers in the days after Mr Obama's birth.
He said: 'Even if you look at the newspaper, the so-called newspaper article in Hawaii, that was days after he was born. Whoever took a newspaper advertisement to announce the birth of your baby?
'I know of nobody, and I know poor people and rich people, but I'd never heard of taking a newspaper ad to advertise you have a baby.'
The president has faced repeated demands that he produce a birth certificate - rather than the certification of live birth - from Republican politicians.
Among those claiming Mr Obama was not born in the U.S. are possible 2012 White House candidate Mike Huckabee.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll last year found 14 per cent of Americans say without prompting that they believe Mr Obama was born in another country.
Last month representatives from 10 U.S. states proposed a bill which prevents Mr Obama's eligibility to serve as president unless he 'proves' his citizenship.
Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961 to a mother from Kansas, and a father from Kenya whom he would barely know and write in his memoir he had met only once.
He spent the first five years of his life in Hawaii and then moved with his since-divorced mother and her new husband to Indonesia.
At the age of 10, he returned to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents on Oahu until he started his undergraduate degree in Los Angeles and completed it in New York City.
'The first time I came to Kenya was in 1987,' Obama said at the University of Nairobi in 2006.
'I had just finished three years of work as a community organiser in low-income neighbourhoods of Chicago, and was about to enrol in law school.
'My sister, Auma, was teaching that year at this university, and so I came to stay with her for a month.'
Mr Trump’s lawyer and advisor Michael Cohen didn't respond to questions about the document.
By the way Isn't my hair pretty, not so bright after all Donald, many people put the birth of a child in the newspaper under Birth Announcements! Maybe your parents just weren't that proud when you were born! (They could see the future!)-Mem
Well heck I have the same type of birth certificate from a hospital in South Florida. The difference is I know it isn't a legal copy, it doesn't have the state seal. It has a gold seal, a picture of the hospital is on the gold seal.
ReplyDeleteJesus Donald I thought you smarter than this...but it would appear you might be cut from the same cloth all the other GOP Tea Parties were. You know, from the wrong side.
I have a newspaper clipping of my birth announcement. It's probably not something they would have done in a large metropolis, where birth announcements would take up a whole section, but in smaller hometown papers, all births at the hospital used to be listed in the paper as a matter of course. The information was obtained directly from county birth records, not from the parents. Of course, that was in the days before privacy concerns halted the practice.
ReplyDeleteThe only reason people think that Donald is intelligent Pat is because he has been able to make billions but they don't talk about all the times he has filed Bankruptcy. He is just a snake oil salesman and we all know you don't have to be smart to con people.
ReplyDeleteTrish you are absolutely correct about all births being announced through the hospital. By the way I was from a small town in Colorado and I remember that even parents use to place birth announcements just like they did wedding announcements. Heck they even announced in the paper when their kids were graduating so the Donald doesn't know what the heck he is talking about!
ReplyDeleteI am almost 65. For at least the last 40 years or so, most people do not own their original birth certificate. It is kept in the state that they were born in. Official copies , on special paper ie Bank paper, are usually issued for a fee to the person. My husband was in the service, and my children were born in different states and I went through this many times. Sometimes they are folded and the seal is on the back, or there is an official stamp of a signature, but it is official, meaning there is not another one, .. and each copy on the special paper is "official". They suffice as a birth certificate , or certificate of live birth.
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump is living in such rarified air he has no clue. As don't many of the birthers.
Wendy I have had to request a copy of my BC along with my children's a couple of times and what you are saying is spot on. I'm pretty sure that I have never seen my original BC as most people haven't. You can always get a copy for a fee but I'm not even sure that they release the original do they?
ReplyDelete