Clinton promptly and properly slammed him at a Latino event. “He was asked one more time where was President Obama born and he still wouldn’t say Hawaii. He still wouldn’t say America,” Clinton said. “This man wants to be our next president? When will he stop this ugliness, this bigotry?”

Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller then put out a hilarious and blatantly false statement, not even in Trump’s name, that said Clinton had started the birtherism and Trump had gotten the birth certificate to put an end to the “ugly” (!) episode. NO, really. Miller had the temerity to write: “In 2011, Mr. Trump was finally able to bring this ugly incident to its conclusion by successfully compelling President Obama to release his birth certificate.” The statement also said Trump now believes the first African American president was born in the United States. (Trump has been asked several times about this in the past couple of weeks and refused to reject the birtherism hooey.) Reporters quickly resurfaced Trump tweets continuing the mantra of birtherism in 2015 and 2016.

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Clinton hit Trump again at a gathering of African American women this morning:

And we know who Donald is. For five years, he has led the birther movement to de-legitimize our first black president. His campaign was founded on this outrageous lie. There is no erasing it in history. Just yesterday, Trump again refused to say with his own words that the president was born in the United States. Now Donald’s advisers had the temerity to say he’s doing the country a “service” by pushing these lies. No, he isn’t. He is feeding into the worst impulses, the bigotry and bias that lurks in our country. Barack Obama was born in America, plain and simple. And Donald Trump owes him and the American people an apology.

And finally today, Trump lured the media to an opening of his new hotel in Washington, whereupon he got an extended plug for his hotels and a slew of endorsements from veterans. He then uttered a single line, “President Barack Obama was born in the United States, period.” In other words, he used the promise of explaining a five-year racist controversy to plug his hotel. It is always all about HIM. It might seem oh-so clever, but it really isn’t.

Let’s count the problems Trump has made for himself.

1. Trump has proved Clinton’s “deplorables” comment correct. We are reminded of his central role in the birtherism conspiracy and the enthusiasm of his fans for it. (One poll found about 60 percent of his supporters did not think Obama was born in the country.) If he won’t acknowledge that he was wrong and apologize for being a central figure in a blatantly racist conspiracy, what are we to think of his followers?

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2. He let Clinton get back on offense. It helps her re-energize the Democratic base, as we saw yesterday when she spoke to a Latino audience and again today to an African American audience.

3. He guarantees birtherism will come up in the debates.

4. It shows Trump will never admit he was wrong, let alone apologize. (Were you wrong to insist that the first African American president prove he was born in the United States?) He won’t acknowledge — despite tweets, statements and interviews — that he was the most prominent figure to fan the flames, not the one to put an end to the ludicrous accusation.

5. He is dead wrong that Clinton started birtherism. And if she did, boy, was he a sucker!

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6. Miller’s bizarrely awful statement will be fodder as well. We are supposed to thank Trump for his role in the birther nonsense?! (“Mr. Trump did a great service to the President and the country by bringing closure to the issue that Hillary Clinton and her team first raised. Unarguably, Donald J. Trump is a closer.”) Was Miller trying to sound as though he thinks Americans are stupid?

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7. Donald Trump Jr. — whose gaffes are now a serious liability — as late as 2014 praised Trump for his “moral conviction” in sticking to birtherism, which Miller now calls an ugly incident. Hmm. (Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr. had his hands full today walking back his Holocaust joke.)

8. This gives members of the media a chance to course-correct their bizarre coverage over the past couple of weeks. They collectively can step back from their mock horror over Clinton’s “deplorables” comment and her pneumonia. The media may now feel obligated to drop its phony equivalence in light of the confirmation that Trump is a pathological liar and demagogue.

9. It puts the spotlight back on President Obama, whose approval ratings are very high right now.

10. It reminds voters that Trump is a classic bully and coward — he’ll run from a personal confession of error, and then send staff to draft loopy excuses. He’ll blame the victim, but never accept responsibility for heinous accusations.