The Trump Organization this year removed from Donald Trump’s corporate biography a reference to his involvement in the birther movement that sought to prove then-President Barack Obama was not a natural-born citizen of the United States.
The line, which had been included in Trump’s bio since as early as August 2015, read, “In 2011, after failed attempts by both Senator McCain and Hillary Clinton, Mr. Trump single handedly forced President Obama to release his birth certificate, which was lauded by large segments of the political community.”
The line was removed at some point between January 13 and January 24 of this year, a review of the Internet Archive shows. Trump took office on January 20.
Representatives for the Trump Organization and the White House did not respond to requests for comment about the change.
The line echoed a claim Trump himself made during the 2016 campaign, in which he falsely placed blame on Clinton and her 2008 campaign for starting the birther conspiracy.
Trump repeatedly and publicly cast doubt that Obama was born in the US and challenged Obama multiple times to release his birth certificate.
Obama ultimately released a long-form birth certificate showing he was born in Hawaii. Even after this, Trump continued to suggest that the birth certificate was a forgery.
In September 2016, Trump finally acknowledged that Obama was born in the US.
The Trump Organization also made other changes to Trump’s bio early this year. References to a Trump-branded Puerto Rico golf course that went bankrupt and failed projects in Azerbaijan and Brazil have been removed.
Mentions of Trump Towers in Istanbul have also been removed, along with a line about his products being sold at Macy’s, which dropped Trump’s product line after his controversial comments about Mexican immigrants.