As far back as 2008, some Americans began to claim that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, but in Kenya. These claims have been promoted by fringe theorists, known as 'birthers', some of whom have sought court rulings to prove that Obama is ineligible to be the president. None of these attempts has been successful. Obama has released the full version of his birth certificate, which shows he was born in Hawaii.
However, birthers claim it is a forgery. There has been what the Daily Telegraphdescribes as "a persistent campaign of misinformation on the subject", led at one stage by Donald Trump, the property mogul and current frontrunner in the race to become the Republican's presidential nominee. According to a recent poll by New York Daily News, 61 per cent of self-identified Trump supporters said they believed the president was not born in the US. Obama has nevertheless made light of the conspiracy and in 2011, during an address at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, even went so far as to release his "birth video": a scene from Disney's The Lion King.
