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Obama birth certificate: Trump takes the credit
I'm proud, says ‘chief birther’ Trump after Obama finally releases long-form birth certificate
The White House has ended months of gossip and speculation over whether Barack Obama was really born in Hawaii - which, being a US state, entitles him to be president - by issuing his long-form birth certificate.
And quick as flash, Donald Trump, the property tycoon who has made the issue the cornerstone of his nascent bid for the White House, took credit for the White House decision.
"Today I'm very proud of myself, because I've accomplished something that no one else has been able to accomplish," Trump said. "But he should have done it a long time ago."
Trump suggested the birth certificate would need to be examined by experts to verify its authenticity.
For his part, President Obama made no reference to Trump when he announced his decision to release the long-form certificate. But it was clear to whom he was referring when he said the nation's problems were too critical for the American people to be "distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers".
It is still not clear whether Trump will run for the presidency in 2012, or whether it will be as an independent or on a Republican ticket. But the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, has made it clear where he stands on Trump's crusade.
Speaking before the White House decision to issue the certificate, Priebus said: "My position is that the president was born in the United States and I don't think it is an issue that moves voters."
No comment yet from Robert De Niro who this week got into a slanging match with Trump. After the actor had accused Trump of behaving like a "car salesman" Trump retorted that De Niro was "not the brightest bulb on the planet". At least he didn't ask to see his birth certificate. ·
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Some dictionary definitions: 'Phrasal Verb: trump up: To devise fraudulently: a trumped up a charge of conspiracy' (The Free Dictionary); 'to concoct or invent (a charge, accusation, etc.) so as to deceive or implicate someone' (Collins).
'Since the early fifteenth century "trump" has served as a synonym for fart, or rather to denote an especially noisy fart. On the other hand, in the sixteenth century, the word "fizzle" arose to signify an inaudible fart' (Mark Morton: A Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities). Now that Sideshow Donald has trumpeted a triumph of statesmanship worthy in his own estimation at least of a Nobel Prize ("Today I'm very proud of myself, because I've accomplished something that no one else has been able to accomplish"), or at least a guest appearance on The Simpsons, perhaps he will fizzle out to an inaudible fart again. Does he, by the way, really have his own birth certificate as well as his own hair, or is he, as millions around the world ardently believe, an alien dropped on our hapless planet by Ron Hubbard's spaceship?
What will Trump do now that his "Trump" card has been played?
New York's premier ego maniac will now have to come up with some real issues. Once his fuzzy platform becomes known, the right wing loonies that he has been romancing will abandon him with all due speed. New Yorkers that have lived with this bufoon's antics since the 80s are hoping he will disappear - at least from the political scene.