The world received the news today that two years into his presidency, President Obama finally released his long form birth certificate. Reacting to the news, Donald Trump is delivering one of the most unusual press conferences in political history, crowing that he’s honored that the president finally released the thing. He says he is “really honored and really proud” that Obama finally released the long form. And I suppose Trump does deserve credit for forcing the issue. There is no way the president would be releasing the form now, if not for weeks of pummeling by Trump. Trump repeatedly said he hoped the long form certificate released by the president is “true.” He will have experts look at it before he offers his own opinion of it.
Trump then used the press conference to hammer the president for economic policy and the price of gas. He singled out OPEC, saying they’re “doing a number” on us. Reporters asked him what he would do differently than the president, and Trump said he would “come down hard” on the OPEC countries that “wouldn’t be around without the US.”
A few questions later, Trump berates a reporter, asking him “Are you intelligent?” before explaining why he cannot announce his presidential run before the end of the current season of Celebrity Apprecentice. Then Trump said something that is unarguably true.
Trump: “The press is very protective of President Obama. They’re not protective of me, but they’re protective of President Obama.” And then Trump went on to slam Obama’s academic record. So, expect a few weeks of this, and then perhaps we will finally see something from Barack Obama’s college records.
Snap reaction: There doesn’t seem to be anything unusual about the birth certificate. Trump railed against Obama’s handling of Libya, noted the IMF prediction that China will pass us in 2016 and said China is manipulating their currency to take advantage of us, and again pledged that on his first day in office he would threaten to impose a 25% tariff on Chinese goods. This was one entertaining press conference. Trump’s handling of the press was combative but commanding. President Obama is up next, to make a public statement on the long form release.
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