(CNN)– Now that President Barack Obama has released his long-form birth certificate, real estate mogul and possible presidential candidate Donald Trump is ready for other issues–one of them apparently whether he will pay the investigators he sent to Hawaii to look into the place of Obama's birth.
In an interview airing Wednesday on CNN's "John King, USA," Trump asserted, "I don't make up anything," when asked about his earlier claims that Obama's birth certificate could be missing. Still, he is undecided about paying for the sleuths he sent to Hawaii to investigate the issue.
"Would I pay them? I don't know," he said. "I can say this, let me just tell you, I don't make up anything…I have done a great service to the American people."
When pressed on his role in stirring up birther controversy by CNN's Chief National Correspondent John King, Trump downplayed his actions by saying he didn't understand why President Obama didn't release his birth certificate earlier. "I heard everyone wanted to see it and I was the only one that got him to do it," he said.
"Every time I sit down with the press all they want to talk about is the birth certificate and I got him to do something that nobody else could get him to do and I take great credit for that."
Trump responded to the president's motivation for releasing his long form birth certificate as a way to end "silliness" by saying, "We have a president that's incompetent…I am a very serious person. I am a person that has made great wealth."
Trump, currently in the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire for several appearances, says he hasn't seen the long-form birth certificate but now hopes "a lot of experts will analyze it."
He indicated that he's ready to move on to other issues, since the place of the president's birth is no longer in question, and affirmed that he's ready to focus on other subjects "like China ripping us off."
"I'm really happy that we can finally get on to that subject because that's my strength," he said. "Jobs, the economy, getting OPEC to behave. We have all the power…they don't respect our leadership," he continued.
If there were any doubt on which ticket Trump would run, if he decides to run for president, given his history of cozying up to the reform party in 1999, and later saying the Republicans are too crazy, and the Democrats are too liberal, Trump settled the question.
"I'm looking to run as a Republican."
"I'm doing great in the polls, you know why?" he continued. "Because people in New Hampshire as well as people in the country don't want to be ripped off by a nation that does business with us."
"Our leader is incompetent, and people want to see a change and that's why I'm doing it."
Trump has convinced at least one key GOP operative that he's not taking a potential bid for the presidency lightly. In an interview with King, Jack Kimball, chairman of the New Hampshire state Republican Party, said he believes Trump's visit to the state is an indication that he's serious about running.
"Just his appearance here today I think is ominous," he said. "I think he wouldn't have bothered to come here if he wasn't taking the next most serious step toward that decision."
From CNN Politics
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertising practices | Advertise with us | About us | Work for us | Help
Why don't you do a further service to us American people Trump and just shut your circus tent down and leave our good country? You and your greedy, avarice-laced, egocentric mind are a disgrace to the U.S. and a big reason why other countries like China are laughing at us.
What a colossally irrelevant waste of time that means absolutely nothing to the rest of us. Trump, you "Fail".
And if I had the opportunity to tell him face to face I would, he is a disgrace to the good will of the American people!
Trump is a fool for taking credit for this. 7 of 10 Americans already knew that Obama was born in the United States, thank you for making that 10 out of 10. Trump will never get elected, who wants a president with a stupid game show and blonde hair.
I agree with The Donald, he did us all a great service by helping the country to see just how racists the GOP is. Now it's out there in the open for the whole world to see. GOP=KKK. Thank you Donald.
if you still believe he isn't an american then you are a plain old everyday RACIST... just admit it and understand you are a bigot and you just hate black people or the thought of a person of color holding power over you.
just admit it...
be like a ghost and be gone !
Trump has done a great service????? The ONLY thing he has done is make himself look like a total fool in the eyes of America.... and push himself even further back from EVER being considered a presidential candidate!
I still, for the LIFE of me, cannot figure out how on earth this guy is even getting any publicity especially when it comes to our President! He is a bottom of the barrel rich dude who thinks his money is going to get him somewhere in this regard.
President Obama........ Don't pay these fools any attention. YOU are the man.
OBAMA FOR 2012!
Is he honestly making a run for president? He can't be serious...
Can you imagine the diplomacy skills of this ego maniac?????
It's as if the Trumpador is the pied piper leading the frothing tea partiers over the cliff.
Is there ever a time when Trump does not think he is completing a great service? I feel the need to vomit.
This question was asked and answered back in 2008. If the president would have been a white man the would have been the end of it. racism and bigotry is alive and well in GOP...
He would have only have done a great service to America, if he had found that the President was NOT born in the USA. As it is, he has changed NOTHING, done NOTHING but run his self-serving mouth off again.
Why aren't we calling him on this? Ask him why he lied to the american people, he said the birth certificate didn't exist or was missing, his own words!
Hey Trump, you'll be doing a great service to the American people when you go away. Do that, and I for one, will be eternally grateful.
Much of this is the media's fault. Trump is a fool trying to gain notoriety/attention and he found a ridiculous way to do just that. If the media hadn't interviewed him or made a big deal out of this, it would have gone away. Everything with Trump is for entertainment....don't even think about his man as President!
What a complete tool.
That is his great service?? This man says he wants to be President, and with very major issues like the economy, jobs, real estate slump, etc...Obama's birth certificate is the great service he has done for to the American people??? What a joke...I am speechless...He is such a moron...
I know how he can do a great service to the American people.
Great service???? Trump is an embarrassment to America. Give it a rest you old self centered egotist.
He's funny.Hope he runs!
Based on his aggressive, red-faced, constantly-interrupting interview I just saw with a polite John King of CNN, I can now confirm that Donald Trump is truly one of the biggest assholes I've ever seen.
I'm pretty sure I heard the Donald on CNN Morning last week claiming that his investigators in Hawaii "had found something," and that he would release news soon. I guess they found Obama's birth certificate...
Good job investigators, thank you for putting this important world mystery to rest.
Unbelievable. Trump is taking credit for escalating this stupidity to the point where an exasperated Obama has to produce his BC just to get rid of a ridiculous, counter-productive distraction (to himself and to the whole nation). What gall! Trump reminds me more of a third-world strongman dictator than of an American president.
At least Trump has one important qualification to lead this country - he's been bankrupted repeatedly. That may be of value when the China stops feeding our cash addiction.