Obama mocks Trump birther conspiracy and says he was able ‘to get away with’ not being born in US

Barack Obama mocked the birther conspiracy Donald Trump alleged over many years, and said he “was able to get away with” not being born in the US, in an appearance on The Daily Show.

The two-term US president, who was born in Hawaii, tore into president Trump’s previous claims - otherwise known as the birther conspiracy - in an interview with the show’s host, Trevor Noah, on Monday night.

The pair mocked past allegations by Mr Trump that Mr Obama was born outside the United States and was thus ineligible to be president at the time.

The Daily Show host told Mr Obama, who was promoting his latest book “A Promised Land”, that he was responsible for both Mr Trump and rapper Kanye West to run for president, having mocked both men in the past.

"I don't know if you've noticed, but you have an ability to inspire people to run for the highest office in the land with some of the jokes you tell about them," Mr Noah said.

Mr Obama, who laughed at the suggestion, infamously tore into Mr Trump’s birther conspiracy allegations at a 2011 White House correspondents' dinner, and some later theorised that was the moment Mr Trump decided to run for president in 2016.

Mr West, who appeared on ballots in the 2020 presidential race, was meanwhile labelled a "jackass" by Mr Obama after he interrupted Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2009.

“I should roast people I admire more. I'll start roasting you, man," Mr Obama told Mr Noah, who was born in South Africa.

"Although you weren't born here," he went on. "But, look, I was able to get away with it, apparently."

Mr Obama wrote in “A Promised Land” that becoming the first Black president "triggered a deep-seated panic" among Republicans and Mr Trump, who “understood when he started pedalling assertions that I had not been born in the United States and thus was an illegitimate president."

"For millions of Americans spooked by a Black man in the White House, he promised an elixir for their racial anxiety," Mr Obama wrote.

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