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Trump Kept 'Birther' Beliefs Going Long After Obama's Birth Certificate Was Released

Trump's trail of tweets since 2011 show he hasn't been willing to let the false claim that Obama was not born in America die down.
Image: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during a campaign town hall meeting in Virginia Beach
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks during a campaign town hall meeting in Virginia Beach, Virginia, U.S., September 6, 2016.MIKE SEGAR / Reuters

Donald Trump now says President Obama was born in the United States, but his trail of tweets reveal he kept the birther movement going long after the president released his birth certificate.

Trump's sharp shift comes after his campaign suggested Thursday night it was the GOP nominee himself who helped to "bring this ugly incident to its conclusion" by prodding the president to release his birth certificate in 2011.

Related: Clinton: Trump Should Apologize for 'Birther' Talk

But Trump's trail of tweets since 2011 shows he wasn't willing to let his "birther" beliefs and the conspiracy theories spawned from the movement die down even after that birth certificate was made public.

Trump resurrected the issue in early 2012 when he tweeted: "Made in America?" and linked to a story on the conservative site WorldNetDaily about Obama's long-form birth certificate — which shows he was born in Hawaii — being questioned in a New Jersey court.

He again raised his suspicions in the months ahead of the 2012 presidential election.

In August 2012, Trump doubled down, tweeting that an "extremely credible source" called his office and said Obama's "birth certificate is a fraud."

A year later, in August 2013, Trump said he deserved praise for talking up Obama's birth certificate.

He also tweeted about conspiracies that Obama's birth certificate was a "computer generated forgery" and that a state health director who verified the document "died in a plane crash" while "all others lived." (Trump was referring to Hawaii health official Loretta Fuddy.)

The following year, Trump wasn't done congratulating himself about Obama releasing his birth certificate, tweeting in June 2014 that "Hillary couldn't, McCain couldn't."

But then, he also called on internet hackers to find Obama's college records to "check 'place of birth.'"