Donald Trump accepts President Barack Obama was born in US
The Republican candidate seeks to draw a line under the controversy he helped launch, as it becomes a distraction to his campaign.
Friday 16 September 2016 17:58, UK
Donald Trump has dropped his controversial questioning of Barack Obama's right to be president by acknowledging he was US-born.
However, the Republican presidential candidate, who had led the so-called birther movement, which cast doubt on Mr Obama's citizenship, pointedly did not apologise.
The US Constitution rules an American leader must be a natural-born citizen.
Mr Obama, who was born in Hawaii to an American mother and a Kenyan father, has previously released a longer version of his birth certificate in response to
While Mr Trump has recovered ground against his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in recent opinion polls after revamping his campaign, the birther movement had angered black Americans, whose votes he has been seeking to court.
In a bid to draw a line under the controversy he helped launch, but which had become a distraction to his White House bid, Mr Trump said: "President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period."
Speaking at a campaign event in Washington DC, he added: "Now we all want to get back to making America strong and great again."
However, in an attempt to deflect inevitable criticism of his admission, Mr Trump claimed Mrs Clinton had started the birther controversy during the 2008 primary campaign against Mr Obama - an accusation independent fact-checking sites have rated as false.
Earlier, Mrs Clinton told the Black Women's Association in the US capital: "Barack Obama was born in America, plain and simple, and Donald Trump owes him and the American people an apology."
She said Trump had tried "to delegitimise our first black president".
Mrs Clinton added: "His campaign was founded on this outrageous lie. There is no erasing it in history."
Following his statement, Mrs Clinton's campaign manager Robby Mook said: "Trump's actions today were disgraceful.
"After five years of pushing a racist conspiracy theory into the mainstream, it was appalling to watch Trump appoint himself the judge of whether the President of the United States is American."
Mr Obama was dismissive of Mr Trump's announcement.
He said: "I was pretty confident about where I was born. I think most people were as well,
"My hope would be that the presidential election reflects more serious issues than that."