WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has hired a team of detectives and dispatched them to Hawaii to prove one thing — that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States and, therefore, is ineligible to be president.
“I have people that actually have been studying it, and they cannot believe what they’re finding,” Trump said yesterday on NBC’s “Today” show. “I’m starting to think that he was not born here.”
Of course, the president has produced a state certificate of live birth, and Hawaii officials have certified his citizenship, but none of that has erased the doubts of so-called birthers.
And the tough talk may be helping Trump with GOP primary voters. He’s tied for second place, at 17 percent, with Mike Huckabee in the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC poll. Ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leads with 21 percent.
And among Tea Party voters, Trump scored 20 percent.
“I’m very proud of some of the ideas [Tea Party members have] put forth,” said Trump, who did not do as well as in a Gallup Poll released yesterday.
It says that 43 percent of all voters give him a favorable rating — and that 47 percent view him unfavorably.