Donald Trump once again questioned the authenticity of President Obama’s birth certificate and called former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) “birthers” for wanting Obama’s birth certificate during the 2008 campaign.
While Clinton and McCain failed, Trump said, he succeeded at finally getting the president to release his long-form birth certificate because he’s a “good businessman.”
“Whether or not that was a real certificate because a lot of people question it, I certainly question it,” Trump said.
{mosads}“Hillary Clinton wanted it, John McCain wanted it, and I wanted it. He didn’t do it for them, he did it for me.”
Neither Clinton nor McCain publicly asked for Obama’s birth certificate during the race, but some of their most radical supporters clung onto the hope that Obama may have been born outside of the United States and wouldn’t be eligible for the presidency.
After years of accusations, most notably from Trump, Obama released his Hawaiian birth certificate in 2011.
The billionaire real estate magnate and host of NBC’s “The Apprentice” also told the audience that he’d build a wall on the Mexican-American border to keep undocumented immigrants out.
“If I run, the king of building buildings, the king of building walls, no one can build them like Trump, I’ll tell you that,” he said. “It all starts with a wall.”
Trump pushed back on repeated criticism that he doesn’t take his flirtations with running seriously. He feigned interest in a bid in 2012, and while he led a CNN poll in 2011, he ultimately decided against running.
This time, he claim’s he’s much more serious and has delayed signing a new contract for “The Apprentice” in order to keep the option open. He recently told the Washington Post that he’s hiring staff in early primary states.
“A lot of people think I’m doing this for fun, they think it’s good for my brand,” he said.
“I’m not doing this for fun, I’m doing it because we have to take our country back. Our country is in serious serious problem—we have a president that’s either incompetent, which I think he could be, or he has his own agenda, which I think he does.”
He added later that he’s “really inclined” to run and put the likelihood at 75 to 80 percent that he will do so.
Trump also waded into criticism of two GOP establishment figures: 2012 nominee Mitt Romney and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
He said that there was “no excuse” for Romney not toppling Obama in 2012 and that the 2016 election will be even harder.
Trump also slammed Bush as too moderate for the conservative base.
“He’s in favor of Common Core, he’s weak on immigration,” he said. “I don’t see him winning, I don’t see there’s any way.”