Real estate mogul Donald Trump is taking credit for the White House’s decision to release President Obama’s long form birth certificate.
Trump, who in multiple interviews suggested the President may not be a natural born citizen, told reporters Wednesday that he was “really proud” and “really honored” for accomplishing something “nobody else has been able to accomplish.”
Speaking from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Trump said that he hoped the revelation would allow the country to address more important issues, but added that he doesn’t yet consider the case to be fully closed.
“I wanna look at it, but I hope it’s true,” Trump said. “We have to look at it, we have to see ‘is it real,’ ‘is it proper?’”
Although President Obama did not directly attribute the decision to release the certificate to Trump’s statements, he told reporters today that he was frustrated the issue was overshadowing economic concerns, a likely nod to the media frenzy Trump stirred up.
Trump has been flirting with a 2012 White House run for months. In a recent Gallup poll on possible GOP contenders, he tied for first place with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.
Interestingly, a new USA Today poll revealed that nearly three in ten American voters don’t know enough to say for sure whether Trump, himself, was born in the U.S.
Geoff Holtzman contributed to this story.