Donald Trump made headlines earlier today when he provided what he said was a copy of his birth certificate — but a quick check reveals it’s actually not an official document.
The paper that Trump released says “Jamaica Hospital” on top and lists the date and time of what he says was his birth to “Mr. and Mrs. Fred C. Trump.” The piece of paper has a seal at the bottom.
But after several New York City-based readers contacted POLITICO’s Maggie Haberman, her call to city officials revealed that an actual birth certificate, which is issued by the Department of Health, would have the agency’s seal and also a signature of the city registrar – neither of which the Trump document has. Officials said the city Health Department is the “sole issuing authority” of official birth certificates in New York, and that the document would clearly say so, and “city officials said it’s not an official document.”
It appears instead to be a hospital “certificate of birth,” meaning the piece of paper the hospital gave to his family saying he was born. Such a document typically has the signature of the hospital administrator and the attending physician.
Does this mean Trump was born in Kenya?
Also too, you’re fired.
Comrade DougJ
Great piece, Ben Smith can be excellent sometimes.
Scott
DEPORT HIM BACK TO JAMAICA
Barb (formerly Gex)
Well, the black guy was speaking, so I’m guessing tomorrow’s news cycle will be the right wing’s noise machine going nuts over something he said.
And Trump’s pathetic little circus will somehow be missed.
danimal
I’m grateful for the Birthers. It only takes one question now to separate the idiots out from the thoughtful conservatives.
Not too many of the thoughtful ones left, though.
Roger Moore
@danimal:
Yes, and that question is “do you exist?” If the answer is yes, the person is not a thoughtful conservative.
joe from Lowell
New rule:
First guy starts talking to me about the technical details of birth certificates gets punched in the neck.
Jacob Davies
I thought when I saw it that it was a souvenir birth certificate, not a certified copy of the actual document. The souvenir is the one you can take home and frame, the actual doc is a bit less photogenic.
What a clown.
OzoneR
Jamaica Hospital has an entire wing and nursing home named for him too
Also, too, the CEO of Jamaica Hospital just got indicted for bribing a State Senator.
jazzgurl
Sometimes I think that these frigging ‘performing artistes’ i.e ( the whole of the flicking GOP party) sound like they are totally uneducated, racist, proud in their stupidity/ignorance and just puerile. Is this where America has reached? God, and struts the talk about American superiority. WHaattttttttttt?!
Trump is a jackass,plain and simple.
SteveinSC
This has comic gold written all over it. As the saying goes, “You can’t make this shit up.”
Karen
But but….it doesn’t count when the Presidential Candidate doesn’t have an Arabic middle name! Also …when the Presidential Candidate is rich! And and
WHITE.
Let’s see if this has any legs but we know that the MSN won’t feature this. However I want this to hit the mainstream media so they’ll have to come up with another excuse why Obama isn’t a real American and I love to see when racist politics has to scrambled around to appear to be less racial.
And talking about Presidential Candidates:
Newt Gingrich Sucks Up To Evangelicals By Hitching His Wagon to Pastor Agee
JPL
@Jacob Davies: It’s the long form because all good parents save those documents.
Unfortunately one of my sons no longer have that particular form but let’s not tell him.
David Brooks (not that one)
I think we should demand that Trump have his toeprints taken, so that we can compare them with those on the souvenir certificate. Check the kerning also too.
Svensker
I love this.
But I’m astounded by the comments over there. Stupid and racist. I really didn’t think America was like that. (Well, I have for the last few years, but you KWIM.)
Bill
Donald Chump
Hal
Ok. I have nothing to say but; fuck you Donald.
“He off-handedly questioned President Obama’s birthplace last week – a comment that drew strong rebukes from some quarters – but now business mogul Donald Trump says he’s more concerned than ever that the president was, in fact, not born in the United States. Trump – who, however improbably, claims to be considering a presidential bid – said Monday that since his first public statement on the issue last week, “a lot of facts are emerging” that are making him question more seriously where Obama was born.
“I am really concerned,” Trump said during an appearance on Fox News. “You have no doctors, you have no nurses … that remember.”
“I brought it up just routinely, and all of the sudden a lot of facts are emerging, and I am starting to wonder myself whether he was born in this country,” he exclaimed.”
steviez314
I don’t believe Donald Trump is a successful businessman.
SHOW ME THE TAX RETURNS!
Joel
Trump’s take-home souvenir is not acceptable by DHS as proper documentation for completing Form I-9.
Let’s hope the VP of Human Resources at Trump Organization is more savvy than her boss, otherwise we might ought prepare ourselves that Trump Organization has hired illegal immigrants using fraudulent I-9 documentation.
New Yorker
So his presidential campaign looks like it will be as successful as his marriages or his casino businesses.
I wish I believed in hell so I could speculate about where people like Trump or Bill Kristol go when they die. You know, the incompetent clown offspring of the rich/powerful who consider themselves to be geniuses and think you should too.
beltane
@David Brooks (not that one): DNA testing should be required to verify the information provided on the alleged birth certificate.
Maude
@steviez314:
I was thinking how could he have done so well with building and be such a clown?
benjoya
Fred Trump the millionaire real estate mogul? that’s impossible; donald trump is a self-made man, i’ve been led to believe.
joe from Lowell
@Karen: Newt is such a freaking scumbag.
Mr. Catholic convert. Have you ever met an actual Catholic convert? Batten the freaking hatches!
Newt’s a phony. He converted for the sole reason that he wanted to use the Sacrament of Reconciliation as political cover for cheating on his wife. Wives. He’s got this line on the campaign trail about learning about God’s forgiveness, that he deploys when he’s asked about that.
“Whore of Babylon” Agee. Yeah, he’s a convert. OK.
dlnelson
I have heard that Hawaii does not have a long form, and that is why they insist on it. I cannot verify that, I have had tree trimmers all day long, in Sacramento Cty, lots of wind, and trees going down. We cannot change the landscape of democratic politics until we get rid of the old guard. They have to go. Obama is boxed in by both sides. They are bought and paid for. Di Fi, is really old, (CA) and running for re election. She is not helpful, we need young folks, that do not have any allegiances. One must start from the inside, and purge. They are too comfortable and too insulated. Change must start with having young folks with new ideas. Sorry about the tree reference, but the all day chain saw buzz is annoying.
jon
If he does get deported, will his hair be quarantined?
ruemara
As a Jamaican, I am insulted As a Jamerican, I am doubly insulted. I think it’s time for unilateral solutions and will now invade Donald Trump’s wallet for the threat to my birthland.
Jamaica Queens hospital, the medical facility that’s been hanging off the Don’s peen like a sexually aggressive tick? People, just because he donates money, doesn’t mean you have to support him with asshattery and fake docs.
beltane
@benjoya: Donald Trump is a self-made man in the same way that Steve Forbes, George W. Bush and Mitt Romney are self-made men. It would appear that the sole criteria for being considered a self-made man in today’s GOP is that one be the byproduct of a very rich man copulating with his very rich wife. Richard Nixon would glower with resentment in his grave if he could see these people.
Mouse Tolliver
How do we know Trump wasn’t born in Nova Scotia or the Canadian side of Niagara Falls? I won’t believe he’s American until he proves it.
pattonbt
Heh, indeedy.
Martin
Worse, he was born in Queens. But he’s still eligible to run for high office. Now if he was born in Jersey… no way.
Trump can’t possibly be elected President. Can you imagine the goomba douchebag decor that he’d have at the White House? We can’t possibly elect the guy who stereotypes everything that is wrong with America.
And FTFY!
JPL
@dlnelson: Some hospitals give you a souvenir to take home but it is not an official birth certificate which has to be issued by the city or state where you are born. My first born never received a “long form” but my second did in the state of CT. What I was told was that it was not an official document and that the only official document was the one provided to me from the city where he was born. The long form crap is bullshit.
me
His mother was born in Scotland so does that make him a half anchor baby?
Cliff
So what you’re saying is, all I have to do to be President is submit a piece of paper with the words “Birth Certificate” scrawled on it in crayon.
Oh, and also be a rich white male.
dlnelson
@JPL: @<a href="#[email protected]JPL: 2I500647″>JPL: I agree, when my kids had to go school, get passports, etc. I just wrote to North Dakota, and Arizona, and got a copy. It was so easy. This long form is nutty, and a fantasy.
Karen
@Martin:
Hey! So was I!
In Bayside and I lived in that area til I was 11. Then we moved to the Island then in 1988 I moved here to Maryland.
You know the term the “Ugly American?” Well Trump is the Ugly New Yorker.
Martin
Ooh, look: the war on teachers is working!
And the GOP is campaigning against public education in 2012. Winnah!
David Brooks (not that one)
@me: I want to know if Paul Anka has had any half anchor babies (this only works in my English accent).
dr. bloor
@Martin:
He’d sell himself the air rights over the White House, and put up a solid gold 110 story highrise full of boxy condos that could be seen from space.
And then he’d declare bankruptcy. Again.
malraux
@JPL: I believe the long form is the paperwork the Dr files with the state. It’s more of the application for a birth certificate. The long form certainly isn’t something you’d give parents to take home. It’s instead filed with vital records in the state. In theory, you could get a copy of that form instead the computer generated printout that is a birth certificate today.
Of course, my understanding is that HI moved all that data into electronic form a while back and either trashed or locked up the paper records. Regardless, no one anywhere has ever needed to have their long form for proof of anything.
pragmatism
Somewhere in Jamaica a village is missing it’s elaborately coiffed idiot.
Martin
@dr. bloor: Yeah, I just don’t know how a guy who declared bankruptcy for the 3rd time, just 2 years ago, can be running for office.
rea
@benjoya:
Oh, he is a self-made man. His father wasn’t anywhere near this much of an ass.
dmsilev
@Hal:
This may come as a shock to The Donald, but I’m pretty sure Obama’s birth was not greeted by three wise men, celebratory sacrifices of cows to the sun god, or a dragon flying over head. It was just a couple, albeit one with an unusual last name, having a baby at the local hospital. No particular reason for the staff of the hospital to remember one particular birth out of hundreds that they doubtless saw every year.
dms
Tax Analyst
Love the thread title, John.
Have you tried “Brotha’ Kenya’ spare a dime?” yet?
Barb (formerly Gex)
@Cliff: And, if you run out of time getting to your list, skip straight to the second part.
Anne Laurie
@jon:
I think after the mongoose crisis, Jamaica forbade the importation of all weasel-related life forms. So they might have to let Donald in on a technicality, but his ‘hair’ will be humanely euthanized.
Barb (formerly Gex)
@Martin: I love how they try to soothe the reader by pointing out that there may be “quality” concerns over Chinese science and that it may take China a while to bring the quality up.
To which I say the flat-earther,geocentric,no plate tectonics, no evolution, no climate change half of our electorate is up to the challenge of meeting them in the middle.
shortstop
@Hal: And by “a lot of facts are emerging,” Trump means, “And since last week I’ve listened to a lot of wild-eyed teabaggers repeating the same shit they’ve been saying for three years, but it was all news to me and I freaking ate it up like the credulous old jackass I am.”
@dmsilev: And then when someone who knew Obama’s parents — the current governor of Hawaii — says he DOES remember when Barack was born, Trump flat-out calls him a liar.
Citizen_X
@dmsilev: Seriously. “OMG, nobody remembers a BABY being born in a HOSPITAL forty-seven fucking years ago??? UNPOSSIBLE!”
If Obama was born looking like Cthulhu, then yeah, the medical staff should remember it. Otherwise it’s just another goddam baby.
MikeJ
@Tax Analyst: I was hoping for D’yer Mak’er.
rikyrah
you all are hilarious.
karma….not only undefeated, but sitting there, filing her nails, waiting for a challenge.
Egypt Steve
@MikeJ: No, I just helped her change her tire.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
NewsMax is of course jizzing up the internons over this. The fact that fRiechtards don’t immediately recognize that thing is not a birth certificate tells me they need to be deported.
J. Michael Neal
Honest to god, am I the only one that recognizes a joke when it’s played? This is a piece with everything the Donald has done so far in this “campaign” of his. He’s spoofing all of the GOP candidates.
Tell me, has anyone ever seen Trump and DougJ in the same place at the same time?
cmorenc
@Hal:
My father was an OB-Gyn, and my wife is an OB-Gyn, both of whom had/have busy practices and delivered countless babies over their respective careers. UNLESS the parents were personal friends or (already) very famous people OR something was frighteningly, memorably difficult about the birth, few doctors retain any memory of the particular babies or mothers whom they deliver past a very short time, except as the women return as patients on their periodic visits to their practice. There was NOTHING about Obama’s mother or him for over forty years past his birth that would be worthy of provoking or refreshing any doctor or nurse involved with his birth to remember either him or his mother. At this point, anyone involved would almost certainly have to check old medical records and work logs to have any idea if they were there or not. The chances of them actually remembering anything about it first-hand are virtually nil. Obama’s mother was a virtual nobody to them at the time.
ALSO, since he wasn’t even on the scene as US Senator until 2004, and born in 1961, that would have been 43 years after his birth, meaning that any still-living doctor or nurse who was present at the time have been (at the time he won the Presidency in 2008):
25: 72 yo
30: 77 yo
35: 82 yo
40: 87 yo
…there’s no assurance that any medical personnel associated with his birth are still alive, let alone have any likelihood of remembering his specific birth.
It would be interesting to apply this same test to the Donald. Can any doctor or nurse at the hospital when he was born remember being there for his specific birth?
Egypt Steve
@cmorenc: Here’s the real question: Does Trump remember being born at this alleged hospital? Why not? It’s very suspicious. I suspect he was born anencephalic. He’s clearly the longest living survivor of the condition. Probably not the smartest, though.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
In Birtherstan the birth of an African-American child is so rare (and traumatic for witnesses) that everyone present is haunted by memories of the event for the rest of their days.
Martin
@Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen: Especially in Brady Bunch white Hawaii, where the introduction of a future t-bone and malt liquor buying welfare citizen would have made all the nurses instinctively reach for their paycheck to protect the future tax increase that this child was sure to result in.
And then, when the nurses looked back and saw this abomination come from a corn-fed Kansas girl, well, how could that not forever be seared into your memory?
suzanne
@J. Michael Neal:
No. I concur that this is just an elaborate setup for his next reality show.
Angry Black Lady
@Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen: FTW
Stefan
The paper that Trump released says “Jamaica Hospital” on top and lists the date and time of what he says was his birth to “Mr. and Mrs. Fred C. Trump.”
His mother was named Fred?
Nellcote
@suzanne:
Or ratings trolling for his current show.
J. Michael Neal
@Nellcote:
I think that there is some (okay, a lot) of that, but I also suspect that Trump really does find the current crop of Republicans to be ridiculous and mock worthy. Trump is an egomaniac, but he mostly just plays a buffoon as a character. He is a Republican, but more in the traditional New York City sense of being strongly pro-business and not particularly small government; he recognizes where his subsidies are coming from. He’s no ally of progressives, but likely recognizes the danger the current GOP presents.
Of course, being Donald Trump, and thus a megalomaniac that absolutely cannot do anything unless it is in the most publicity attracting way, he CAN’T just come out and criticize them. No, he has to play a practical joke and draw attention to himself.
Jebediah
@J. Michael Neal:
The last two times he pretended to run, he had a book to sell. Does he have a book out or about to come out?
And does anyone believe he is seriously running? He’s an egomaniac who seemingly can’t string three sentences together without bragging about something, but I don’t think he believes he could be elected.
Mnemosyne
@Maude:
He hasn’t done well with building, though. If you can manage to go bankrupt running a casino — a business where people literally walk in the door and hand you all of the money from their wallet so they can get a “free” watered-down drink — you’re the world’s worst businessman.
Petorado
Come on people. The certificate is obviously false. A quick trip to teh Google reveals that a site called Astro Databank has the Donald’s birth time as 09:51 AM, not 10:54AM as described on the “purported” birth certificate. So where do I pick up my O’Keefe award for excellence in journamalism?
JoshA
@Scott: +1. I vote we make “Deport him back to Jamaica” a new tag.
Nylund
The comments over there are just so full of stupid, its scary, like “this country is DOOMED” level of scary. I’m shocked at how stupid and racist that thread is! I’ll never complain about a BJ comment thread again.
Yutsano
@Martin:
Tell me you didn’t type this and not giggle maniacally.
Shalimar
So the newspaper headline on this story has to be “Trump’s Jamaican Birth Questioned”, right?
JenJen
@cmorenc: Excellent post, and thank you.
@Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen:
Most logical explanation I’ve yet heard.
sweaver
Do I give the Donninator too much credit for suspecting he’s actually going to pull a “Whoops, I’m so sorry about that, here’s my ACTUAL document” . Complete with a wink at the camera and a statement that “his assistant responsible for the screwup is gonna be ‘FY-YUHD’ for their mistake.”
debbie
That piece of paper’s no more or less reliable than most of his contracts for any of his building projects.
lou
I learned the hard way that the hospital souvenir birth certificate is not your official one. When I was first applying for a passport many moons ago, took mine to the post office and they laughed me out of the room. Then I called Kentucky Office of Vital Records and they shipped me the official thing, which looked just like Obama’s, only on blue paper.
Trump has to know this. He’s an international jetsetter, right?
Kathy in St. Louis
Donald Trump was not born. He swam up the drain.
Wolfdaughter
@lou:
Hey, I was born in Kentucky, too. But the official birth certificate I got is black on white paper (metaphor in there someplace?) so it looks even MORE like Obama’s!
Bex
@Cliff: You’re automatically disqualified. You can spell.