“President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period.”
As Donald Trump learned in the past week at least, eventually the truth catches up to you.
“President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period.”
In an uncharacteristically short statement, he finally admitted Obama was born in the U.S. after maintaining that he was born in Kenya.
It would seem Trump was finally accepting reality, except he refused to take questions after and maintained Hillary Clinton started the "birther" movement, or the conspiracy around Obama's birthplace, during her 2008 campaign.
It’s true that Clinton herself may not have started birtherism, but people who supported and volunteered for the campaign in 2008 did spread the rumors. Perhaps in an attempt to focus his campaign on the issues that voters actually care about, Trump decided to put birtherism behind him.
Often, Trump’s supporters will say he’s not a politician and that we should focus on the issues — but Trump touted Obama’s birthplace as a key issue. Trump attacked Obama’s legitimacy as a leader, which is stooping very low in an effort to discredit the first black president. It’s clear his campaign is pushing him to appear more presidential — Trump himself would probably continue the birther rhetoric. Trump has shown in the past that he resists the traditional campaign structure, preferring to speak off the cuff, rather than from a teleprompter.
While a pivot was expected of Trump, it seems a solid pivot on issues that matter to voters isn’t going to happen. Trump wants to have his cake and eat it too: He wants to be the candidate who stands against political correctness and the candidate who has the support of the Republican Party, even if he likes to say he doesn’t actually need the GOP.
Every day, Trump alternates between alienating the GOP base, his core supporters and independents, among which there is little overlap. It may be that the very thing that makes him appeal to the voter who hates political correctness will not win him the general election. Ever since Trump announced his candidacy he has narrowed his appeal, not broadened it.
Maybe now he realizes being unreasonable doesn’t get you votes. Being so far ahead of the November elections makes it difficult to predict anything, but if Trump continues the way he has so far, then winning the upcoming election will not be easy.
Throughout this race, Trump hasn’t been accountable for his actions — even in affirming that Obama was in fact born in the U.S. According to The Washington Post, the campaign stated in an email: “Mr. Trump did a great service to the president and the country by bringing closure to the issue that Hillary Clinton and her team first raised.” In fact, he hasn’t brought closure to the issue at all: Why did he keep up the charade about the birth certificate long after Obama had already released his birth certificate? Trump routinely criticizes Clinton for not answering questions from the press, and yet, when it counted the most Trump shied away from allowing the press to ask questions.
While I hate the term political correctness, what Trump has said and done over the course of this campaign is not politically incorrect but just plain rude.
If his handling of the birther issue is any indication of how he would conduct a presidency, a Trump presidency will be filled with aimless racist witch hunts he will eventually blame on someone else.
Nicole Dan is a UF political science sophomore. Her column appears on Mondays.
