For years, before he won the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, Donald Trump was something like the spiritual leader of the Republican Party’s right-wing base. Birtherism made Trump a celebrity on the right. It made him so popular with Republican voters that, while fighting to win the 2012 race for the Republican presidential nomination, Mitt Romney ventured out to Las Vegas to receive Trump’s blessing and support. To attack the former president, Trump liked to insinuate that he wasn’t born in the United States. “He’s spent millions of dollars trying to get away from this issue,” Trump said in 2011.

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Persons: Donald Trump, Barack Obama, Birtherism, Trump, Mitt Romney, ” Romney, Donald Trump’s, I’m, birtherism, —, delegitimize Obama, “ He’s, ” Trump, ” Organizations: Republican, Republican Party, Trump, “ Locations: United States, Las Vegas, birtherism, Trump