# Birther Movement
The Birther Movement is a political conspiracy theory that claimed former U.S. President Barack Obama was not born in the United States and was therefore ineligible to hold the office. It started as anonymous chain emails during the 2008 Democratic primary, grew through conservative blogs and WorldNetDaily, and reached its widest coverage after Donald Trump publicly pushed the claims from 2011 through 2016.
## Overview
The Birther Movement refers to people who believed that Barack Obama was born outside the United States, most commonly in his father's home country of Kenya, and therefore did not meet the Constitution's natural-born citizen requirement for the presidency[4]. Believers called themselves "birthers," a label that stuck to the movement long after Obama produced multiple forms of documentation.
The specific claims shifted over time. Early versions argued that Obama's Hawaii birth did not qualify because of his Kenyan father and immigration technicalities. Later versions insisted the short-form Certification of Live Birth was a forgery, and after the long-form was released in 2011 some birthers pointed to "layers" in the White House PDF as proof of fraud[4]. FactCheck.org staff physically examined the certificate and vouched for its authenticity, but their reporting did little to slow the theory[1].
The movement pulled together an unusual mix of allies. Early birthers included some Hillary Clinton primary voters who called themselves PUMAs, along with pro-Israel bloggers, WorldNetDaily columnists, and a smaller strand of white supremacists[4]. What began as basement blog chatter turned into national coverage after WorldNetDaily made birther stories a full-time beat in 2009 and Donald Trump began repeating the claims on television in March 2011[3].
## How It Spread
Through 2009 the story spread inside the conservative blogosphere alongside a slow-building rumor-checking backlash. WorldNetDaily turned birtherism into a 24/7 news beat that year, moving the story from basement blogs to constant front-page treatment on that site[4]. The site kept a rotating cast of self-styled experts on hand to analyze every document and every claim, keeping the story alive well past Obama's re-election[4].
After Donald Trump began pushing the claim on national TV in March 2011, mainstream outlets swarmed in with debunking coverage. Wire services carried stories noting the claims had long been disproven, Republican leaders and southern editorial pages called birthers kooks, and the fact-checking sites FactCheck.org and PolitiFact ran special reports[3]. The New York Times published a piece on the psychology of why birthers cling to false ideas[3]. Under sustained public pressure, Obama requested certified copies of his long-form Certificate of Live Birth from the Hawaii Department of Health on April 22, 2011, and the White House posted a PDF version the following week. Birthers immediately seized on "layers" in the PDF as proof of forgery, but the layers were an ordinary byproduct of the optical character recognition software used to scan the document[5].
Trump kept pushing the claim through 2012, tweeting on August 6 that the certificate was a fraud[6]. That October he staged a highly promoted challenge to Obama, offering a large charity donation for the release of college and passport records, an announcement mainstream press covered as an anticlimax. Stephen Colbert made a satirical counter-offer, and Obama joked on The Tonight Show that his feud with Trump dated to their shared Kenyan childhood. Trump finally reversed course on September 16, 2016 at the opening of a Washington D.C. hotel, saying Obama was born in the United States while falsely accusing Hillary Clinton of starting the rumor[1].
## How to Use
The label 'birther' works as a noun for a person who held the birth-certificate conspiracy view, or as an adjective for related lawsuits, rumors, and media coverage. After 2011 the term became a shorthand insult in mainstream political commentary, used to separate fringe activists from ordinary political critics[3].
## Cultural Impact
Reason magazine warned in July 2009 that the story had "legs no evidence will ever trip up," a diagnosis that held up as the claim kept rebounding[2]. The theory re-emerged as a Republican primary talking point in 2015 when Ted Cruz told Yahoo News that "the whole birther thing was started by the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2008," a claim FactCheck.org showed had no supporting evidence[1]. When Trump publicly abandoned the theory in 2016, "birtherism" trended on Twitter and drew a wave of coverage focused on the racism running under the movement[1].
## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is the Birther Movement?
The Birther Movement is a political conspiracy theory that claimed Barack Obama was not born in the United States and therefore could not legally serve as president[4].
### Where did the Birther Movement come from?
It started as anonymous chain emails during the 2008 Democratic primary, forwarded within networks of Hillary Clinton supporters who opposed Obama's nomination[4].
### What does 'birther' mean?
A 'birther' is a person who believed in the conspiracy theory that Obama was not a natural-born United States citizen and was therefore ineligible for the presidency[4].
### How do you use Birther Movement?
'Birther' is used as a noun for a believer in the theory, or as an adjective for related claims, lawsuits, and rumors about Obama's citizenship[4].
### Is the Birther Movement still popular?
Donald Trump publicly abandoned the theory on September 16, 2016, and mainstream birther activity dropped sharply afterward[1].
### Who started the Birther Movement?
The rumor first spread as an anonymous chain email in spring 2008, sometimes traced to Free Republic forum comments; no single person has been identified as the originator[4].
### Did Hillary Clinton start the Birther Movement?
No; FactCheck.org reviewed the claim in 2015 and found no evidence that Clinton or her campaign ever questioned Obama's birthplace[1].
### What was Donald Trump's role in the Birther Movement?
Trump publicly demanded to see Obama's birth certificate starting in March 2011 and tweeted in August 2012 that the certificate was a fraud[6].
### What was the 'PDF layers' claim?
After the long-form was released as a PDF, birthers said its visible layers were proof of forgery; the layers were actually an artifact of optical character recognition software[5].
### What lawsuit did Phil Berg file?
Berg, a former Pennsylvania deputy attorney general, filed a federal complaint on August 21, 2008 alleging Obama held multiple citizenships and was ineligible for the presidency[4].
## References
1. [https://www.factcheck.org/2015/07/was-hillary-clinton-the-original-birther/]()
2. [https://reason.com/2009/07/17/interested-in-a-political-hist/]()
3. [https://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2011/04/has-the-birther-movement-peaked/]()
4. [https://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2012/07/who-benefits-from-the-birther-movement/]()
5. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/birther-movement]()
6. [https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/232572505238433794]()
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